Stricter corona rules in the countries - protests in the evening
Created: 12/28/2021 Updated: 12/28/2021, 8:09 AM
Demonstrators meet for an unregistered so-called "walk" in the city center of Cottbus.
© Frank Hammerschmidt / dpa-Zentralbild / dpa
The federal states are implementing stricter contact restrictions - and again tens of thousands are taking to the streets against Corona restrictions.
This means a lot of effort for the police.
Berlin - In the fight against the further spread of the corona virus, tougher measures are taking place in other federal states.
Stricter contact restrictions now also apply in Bavaria, Berlin, Hesse, North Rhine-Westphalia, Saarland, Saxony, Schleswig-Holstein and Thuringia.
Other countries had already implemented similar measures to protect themselves against the very contagious Omikron variant.
Before Christmas, the federal and state governments had agreed to further restrict private and public life by December 28th at the latest.
The implementation of the rules was the responsibility of the countries.
Tens of thousands demonstrate
On Monday evening tens of thousands of people took to the streets in many German cities against corona restrictions.
Sometimes there were riots and several police officers were injured.
The demonstrations were particularly popular in eastern Germany.
In Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, according to the police, there were a total of around 15,000 participants in several cities, 6500 of them in Rostock alone.
In Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, stricter corona protective measures have been in place since Monday - museums, theaters, cinemas and other leisure facilities are closed nationwide.
Around 3,000 people demonstrated in Cottbus, around 5,000 in Magdeburg and around 2,000 in Gera. The authorities also reported four-digit numbers of participants from Halle, Halberstadt, Wittenberg, Bitterfeld, Ravensburg, Saarbrücken, Braunschweig, Kaiserslautern, Fulda and Koblenz.
Injured police officers in Bautzen
According to the police, rioters injured more than ten emergency services and damaged some vehicles in Bautzen in East Saxony.
When the officers tried to stop an elevator, they were "massively" pelted with fireworks and bottles.
Most of the injured police officers suffered a bang.
A total of around 500 to 600 people had gathered, with “people belonging more to the extremist spectrum” in the front third of the demonstration marches.
In Pirmasens, two participants in a meeting attacked emergency services.
According to the police, one of the two attackers had previously been advised of the obligation to wear a mask.
Three officers were slightly injured.
According to the police, there were also riots in Mannheim and Ravensburg.
Police work suffers from high effort for demos
The police union (GdP) sees its colleagues as heavily burdened by the many protests.
The high level of effort may necessitate “neglecting other police tasks, for example traffic monitoring,” said GdP chairman Oliver Malchow to the newspapers of the Funke media group (Tuesday).
Malchow fears that this will lead to a loss of trust in the law enforcement officers and "the police will become even more of a lightning rod for angry citizens".
The general manager of the German Association of Municipalities, Gerd Landsberg, called on the police and the judiciary to take consistent action against people who break the law at demonstrations.
“The state has to show a clear line in the anti-vaccination demonstrations.
One or the other radar control is less important, "said Landsberg of the" Rheinische Post ".
Debate about compulsory corona vaccination
Many demonstrators are particularly unhappy with the request for a corona vaccination, which the Bundestag will discuss for the first time in January.
The head of the National Association of Statutory Health Insurance Physicians (KBV), Andreas Gassen, rejects this.
The KBV consider "the prompt creation of a central register to prepare for a possible corona vaccination is unrealistic," said Gassen of the "Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung".
The construction would "take months, maybe years".
Many questions are also unanswered.
"If not significantly more people are vaccinated at the end of the day, the compulsory vaccination will not do much apart from massive anger, aggressive demonstrations and a flood of lawsuits," said Gassen.
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The President of the German Red Cross (DRK), Gerda Hasselfeldt, spoke out in favor of a general compulsory vaccination.
"We are all constantly learning new things in this pandemic - and now I am positive about the general vaccination requirement," she told the "Rheinische Post".
FDP parliamentary group leader Christian Dürr is still undecided in his own words.
"Possible vaccination requirements only have a medium-term effect.
In the short term, they are not an effective means, ”he told the“ Passauer Neue Presse ”(Tuesday).
There is currently a very high willingness to vaccinate in the population.
“You should now use it primarily.” The idea is that the Bundestag will vote on a possible introduction without being forced to by parliamentary groups.
dpa