DEMOS VS EU RESTRICTIONS HELD

Thousands of people demonstrated on Saturday in several European countries against coronavirus restrictions, on the day France and Poland began imposing new partial lockdowns and as other nations consider similar moves to curb soaring infections, according to Euronews.

Germany, the Netherlands, Austria, Bulgaria, Switzerland, Romania, Serbia, Poland, France and Britain all saw demonstrations of varying magnitude and with various local factors coming into play.

Across Europe, protesters railed against the "dictatorship" of pandemic health restrictions and what they see as an attack on fundamental freedoms.

But the demonstrations also featured a strong element of pandemic denial, fuelled by misinformation. "Stop the Corona terror" or "COVID is a hoax" were common slogans on signs.

Some rallies degenerated into clashes with the police. In the UK at least 36 people were arrested and several police officers injured during an anti-lockdown protest in London.

A similar protest took place in Manchester, with no reports of arrests.

Police had warned against violating a ban on most group meetings; civil rights campaigners and politicians are demanding a change in the law to allow protests as an exception to pandemic restrictions.

There were clashes in Kassel, in central Germany, where federal police brought in beforehand used pepper spray, batons and water cannons to deal with protesters as an estimated 20,000 turned out despite a court ban. Police said several people were detained.

Many didn't comply with infection-control protocols such as wearing face masks. Some protesters attacked officers and several journalists, the dpa news agency reported. There also were confrontations between the demonstrators and counter-protesters.

Various groups, most of them far-right opponents of government regulations to fight the pandemic, had called for protests on Saturday in cities across the country.

In Berlin a gathering of around 500 far-right protesters was outnumbered by a counter-demonstration double the size. Virus infections have gone up again in Germany in recent weeks, with the new British variant dominant, and the government is set to decide next week on how to react.

On Friday Chancellor Angela Merkel said the country will have to apply an “emergency brake” and reverse some recent relaxations of restrictions.

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