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A poster at the demonstration in Hamburg: The police speak of around 13,700 participants
Photo: Daniel Bockwoldt / dpa
Several thousand anti-vaccination opponents and doubters of corona measures have taken to the streets again in Germany.
One of the largest events was in Hamburg, where the police spoke of around 13,700 participants in the evening.
To the demo with the motto »The measure is full.
Hands off our children ”, around 11,000 participants were originally expected.
There were also several thousand demonstrators in numerous other cities.
In Hamburg, the organizer asked the participants over loudspeakers to comply with the mask and distance requirements. Nevertheless, many people were traveling without masks and without any distance. A demo participant wore a Star of David with the words "unvaccinated" on it, the police tweeted. A preliminary investigation had been initiated on suspicion of sedition.
According to the police, up to 8,000 people demonstrated against corona measures at a registered event in Frankfurt am Main. According to the police, there were several thousand in Düsseldorf, the organizers spoke of around 4,000. In Freiburg, according to the police, up to 6,000 people gathered for a registered protest. There were almost 2000 in Wetzlar in Hesse and around 1250 in Trier. According to the police, around 1,600 opponents of corona measures gathered in Schwerin, around 2,700 in Regensburg and around 2,000 demonstrators in Ansbach (both Bavaria).
In Magdeburg, thousands of people marched through the city for hours to demonstrate against corona measures.
Trams stood still, roads were temporarily closed.
In Berlin people demonstrated in a car and bicycle parade, the police counted more than 70 cars, 100 bikes and a total of around 200 participants.
In Vienna, too, tens of thousands of people took to the streets against the corona measures.
In the center of the Austrian capital, they protested above all against the mandatory vaccination that the government had decided on.
According to the police, around 40,000 people took part in the demonstration.
But there were also counter-demonstrations. In Minden (North Rhine-Westphalia) around 2500 people took to the streets to demonstrate against "lateral thinkers". They expressed their displeasure with corona deniers, vaccination skeptics and right-wing radicals. "Yes to freedom of expression and togetherness - decidedly no to hatred, threats and violence," it said on a poster. According to the organizers and the police, up to 1000 people gathered in Erfurt to demonstrate for democracy and consideration in the pandemic.
In Dresden, candles in front of the Frauenkirche have been remembering the pandemic victims of the Saxon capital since Saturday.
The initiative of the private initiative “Show Attitude” for solidarity with one another had already found broad support in the run-up to the event.
By Saturday, more than 9,500 people had signed the call to "show your stance".
The Dresden city leaders also called for participation.
In a statement by Mayor Dirk Hilbert (FDP) and his alderman, it was said to question ordinances and rules and to express one's opinion freely, is an important part of democracy.
But hatred, agitation, violence and conspiracy theories are not to be accepted as means of social debate.
Federal Health Minister Karl Lauterbach told "Welt am Sonntag" that the debate between vaccination opponents and corona deniers had lost all measure and aim. "A small group is ready to wipe all scientific knowledge off the table and voluntarily enter a bubble of pseudo-truths," said the SPD politician. This is a new and frightening development in German post-war history.
The designated CDU chairman Friedrich Merz wrote in an article published on Saturday for »Focus Online«: »Among the demonstrators are not only notorious violent criminals, but also more and more citizens who have so far led a completely normal life and who disregard conspiracy theories, Let fear scenarios and dubious ›experts‹ in matters of health and corona be carried away to excesses of hatred and violence. "That is not yet a divided society," with this attribute one would unnecessarily upgrade this radical minority, and it is a very small minority ".
But the basic consensus of society is becoming narrower, the spectrum of opinion is growing and the political center is becoming diffuse.
mic / dpa / AFP
