A demonstration banned by the authorities brought together thousands of people in eastern Switzerland on Saturday protesting against the anti-coronavirus restrictions in the country.
Rarely wearing masks, protesters marched through the small town of Rapperswil-Jona, displaying Swiss flags and shouting “
Freedom
”.
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According to the police, around 4,000 people demonstrated in peace for this new anti-sanitary restriction rally called by the group called Stiller protest ("
Silent
protest
").
Authorities said they tried to deter protesters, stopping cars heading towards the city center and explaining the illegal nature of the rally.
They said they had chosen not to disperse the demonstration for fear of excesses, considering that "
a strong repression would not have been justifiable under the law
".
Police said they briefly arrested two people and expelled 45 people from the city for 24 hours.
Gradual lifting of restrictions
Protesters accuse the Swiss government of using dictatorial powers to impose restrictions aimed at curbing the spread of Covid-19.
Switzerland has put in place a process of gradually lifting the restrictions.
This week, the sports facilities and the terraces of the bars and restaurants were thus able to reopen.
But critics say it takes too long to return to a normal life.
Switzerland, which has 8.6 million inhabitants, has recorded nearly 650,000 cases of coronavirus contamination and nearly 10,000 deaths since the start of the pandemic.
Almost 10% of the population is vaccinated.
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While the epidemic situation seems rather sandy in the country, Switzerland announced on Saturday that it had detected on its soil the first case of the Indian variant of Covid-19, responsible for an epidemic outbreak in India.
