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Demo pictures from Leipzig
Photo: Steffen Junghans / imago images / Steffen Junghans
Three days after the "lateral thinking" demonstration in Leipzig, which led to attacks on police officers and journalists, the Saxon Higher Administrative Court (OVG) presented the reasons for its controversial decision that allowed the meeting in the city center.
The city of Leipzig had previously wanted to move the demonstration to a large exhibition car park on the outskirts.
According to the reasoning, the judges assumed 16,000 participants based on a risk forecast by the police.
The Augustusplatz in Leipzig was big enough for such a crowd, even while maintaining the Corona distance requirements of six square meters per person, it said.
Together with some side streets, there was also a sufficiently large buffer.
The OVG announced on Tuesday evening in Bautzen that the space requested by the organizers from the start offered at least "a certain probability" that people would actually gather there and not be scattered around the city in a disorderly manner.
After the move to the fair, the applicant announced that he did not want to hold the demo there.
In fact, well over 16,000 demonstrators gathered in the city center on Saturday.
The police assumed 20,000 participants.
Most of them did not wear the required masks.
The city disbanded the meeting.
After that, people forced a walk across the Leipziger Ring.
After the chaos at the demo, Saxony tightened the rules for gatherings.
The number of participants should be limited to 1000 in the future.
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mfu / dpa