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Participant in the lateral thinker demo in Leipzig
Photo: STRINGER / AFP
In Leipzig, significantly more people than allowed for a demonstration of the "lateral thinker" scene gathered.
A police spokeswoman told SPIEGEL that there were "several thousand" people on site.
The police have therefore opened an "additional area".
A maximum of 1000 participants were admitted to the event of the "Movement Leipzig" in the afternoon for a stationary rally.
The originally intended area was cordoned off after the number was reached.
Reinforcement for the Leipzig police
The spokeswoman said they wanted to prevent the march from moving and thus forming an elevator.
Another rally of the scene is planned elsewhere in the city for the evening.
The organizer is the »Leipzig Citizens' Movement«.
The police are on site with numerous forces and receive support from other federal states.
It is considered possible that the situation will escalate in the evening.
On the sidelines of the demo, the police said they had arrested 24 people from the right-wing scene.
They carried prohibited items and were taken into custody.
"You can't take part in any more events today," it said.
A year ago there was a "lateral thinking" demonstration with at least 20,000 participants in Leipzig.
After the rally was broken up because of numerous violations of conditions, thousands had forced the walk across the Leipziger Ring, which leads around the city center.
The President of the Thuringian Office for the Protection of the Constitution, Stephan Kramer, recently warned against a radicalization of the "lateral thinker" scene.
"The fourth wave, the discussion about booster vaccinations and tightening of corona measures such as the expansion of 2G regulations can lead to a new push for the scene," he told the editorial network Germany.
sms / dpa
