Thousands of people, including far-right groups, marched today in Berlin against pandemic restrictions and ran into the police after they dispersed the main concentration that then moved to other spaces.
With no social distance or masks, the protesters first gathered at the iconic Brandenburg Gate to participate in the so-called “Festival of Freedom and Peace.” As the merger and its main flags violated the measures of social distinction and care imposed in Germany, the police decided to prepare the concentration. Some of the participants waved flags from the United States, Russia or Nazi Germany, while others wore T-shirts with allusions to conspiracy theories or inscriptions repudiating the use of cover caps.
The Berlin regional government had banned the protest on the grounds that in a previous march the demonstrators had not complied with measures to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. The march comes amid an uptick in coronavirus infections in much of Europe, including in Germany, where contagions returned to levels in May and even April.
