Heated protests against corona restrictions in Cottbus
Created: 12/19/2021 Updated: 12/19/2021, 4:43 PM
Police cars are in downtown Cottbus.
© Frank Hammerschmidt / dpa-Zentralbild / dpa
The protest on the street against compulsory vaccination and the corona rules continues unabated in Brandenburg.
According to the police, the mood in Cottbus has heated up during a protest march.
Cottbus - In Brandenburg, several thousand opponents of the corona rules and a possible vaccination requirement demonstrated again at the weekend.
According to the police, the atmosphere in Cottbus was heated up in places.
According to the police, up to 4,000 people protested in several places there on Saturday.
From two demonstrations, several unregistered protest marches formed, in which the mask requirement was violated and in some cases more than the permitted 1000 people took part.
15 people have set off fireworks and criminal proceedings have been initiated against them.
The officials added them to the right-wing extremist scene.
Cottbus is the focus of right-wing extremism in the state for the protection of the constitution in Brandenburg.
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In Cottbus, two registered demonstrations began on Saturday at the upper church and the town hall. A police spokesman said that up to 1,000 people took part in each. Several hundred people were still standing behind the barrier at the upper church, and there were more people in the vicinity of the town hall. The applicants - one of them was the Cottbus AfD boss Jean-Pascal Hohm - dissolved the meetings. Hohm had called for an “evening stroll” under the motto “Our freedom is non-negotiable - Against vaccination, 2G madness, lockdown and curfews”. Since last year, the Brandenburg AfD has been observed by the State Office for the Protection of the Constitution as a suspected right-wing extremist case.
Contrary to the officials' request, a train with several thousand people formed from the demos, which the police said they had stopped.
This resulted in several protest marches, some of which up to 2500 people took part.
The banners read “Stop with 3G, 2G, 1G - stop the compulsory vaccination”, “Stand up!
Defend yourself! ”Or with a view to Brandenburg's Prime Minister Dietmar Woidke (SPD) a banner“ Woidke must go ”.
"We found a lot of violations of the mask requirement in the elevator," said a police spokesman.
The officials stopped the largest train when it had between 1,000 and 1,500 participants.
Four people have been temporarily detained for resisting police officers and violating the assembly law.
A reporter from Rundfunks Berlin-Brandenburg (RBB) reported that there had been calls to hunt down and beat up an RBB team.
The police said on request on Sunday that they had no knowledge of this yet.
According to the police in Cottbus, there were no counter-demonstrations.
Meetings in Brandenburg / Havel, Hennigsdorf and Potsdam were peaceful on Saturday, according to the officials.
The Brandenburg AfD called for further protests against a general corona vaccination requirement.
“We will take to the streets until normal law is in place again and everyone can determine their own body,” said AfD member of the Bundestag Steffen Kotré on Sunday during a rally in Frankfurt (Oder).
It is estimated that a few dozen people followed the AfD call for a demonstration under the motto “Prevent compulsory vaccination, protect borders, defend freedom!” And marched through the city.
The elevator ran smoothly, but in 26 cases participants did not wear a mask despite being asked, said a police spokesman.
Since Wednesday, only up to 1000 people have been allowed to take part in outdoor demos, mask requirements and minimum distance apply.
According to the police, a counter-demonstration by the alliance “No place for Nazis” was reported to have insulted police officers.
dpa
