(Reuters) – Tens of 1000’s of protesters marched by a number of northwest European cities on Saturday to reveal against coronavirus restrictions imposed amid a surge in infections.
Austria final month turned the primary nation in Western Europe to reimpose a lockdown, which is ready to final 20 days, and mentioned it could make vaccinations obligatory from February.
Some of the greater than 40,000 demonstrators in Vienna https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/thousands-march-vienna-against-coronavirus-lockdown-2021-12-04 carried indicators studying: “I’ll determine for myself”, “Make Austria Great Again” and “New Elections” – a nod to the political turmoil that has seen three chancellors inside two months.
Around 1,200 law enforcement officials deployed for the march on the central Ring boulevard, and a 1,500-strong counter-protest, each allowed below the phrases of Austria’s lockdown.
In the central Dutch city of Utrecht https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/thousands-protest-over-dutch-coronavirus-restrictions-2021-12-04, a number of thousand demonstrated against restrictions that started final weekend.
Protesters carried banners studying “Medical Freedom Now!”, with a big police contingent current.
It was the primary main demonstration in the Netherlands against the measures, which embody a nighttime closure of bars, eating places and most shops to stem a wave of COVID-19 instances that’s threatening to overwhelm the healthcare system.
Two weeks in the past, there have been violent protests after the Dutch authorities introduced plans to ban most unvaccinated individuals from bars, eating places and different public locations.
“We are against having no freedom (to determine what occurs to) our personal physique,” Utrecht demonstrator Marit van Hunen mentioned.
The plans face robust opposition in parliament and haven’t been enacted but.
In the German monetary capital, Frankfurt, police broke up an indication of a number of hundred individuals for failing to put on masks or keep social distancing, utilizing batons and pepper spray after they have been attacked by a gaggle of protesters.
And in Berlin, the place a brand new authorities is ready to take workplace inside days, small teams gathered to protest after a big demonstration was banned.
German politicians broadly condemned a protest by opponents of coronavirus restrictions that occurred late on Friday exterior the house of Petra Koepping, well being minister in the japanese state of Saxony, which at the moment has Germany’s highest an infection charge. Some mentioned it smacked of Nazi-era intimidation.
(Reporting by Eva Plevier and Hilde Verweij in the Netherlands, Francois Murphy and Lisi Niesner in Vienna, Emma Thomasson in Berlin; Writing by Kevin Liffey; Editing by Frances Kerry)
