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After numerous violations of the requirements of the assembly, the city of Leipzig has dissolved the rally of “lateral thinking” against the policy of the crown. The city announced it on Twitter. According to the police, the organizers asked about 20,000 people on Augustusplatz in the city center to do the same. “Now we will leave the stage, the meeting is dissolved,” said the organizers in the afternoon. “Please keep the peace.”
At the demonstration, most of the participants had previously violated the crown’s rules. Almost no one had covered their mouth and nose or kept a minimum distance of 1.50 meters from other people. As a result, the police had significantly increased the assembly area by noon.
The police had previously pointed out that the number of participants represented a violation of the requirements: only up to 16,000 participants were registered, the police said they had taken over 20,000 in the early afternoon.
Many of the participants are on the surrounding streets after the demonstration was canceled, as reported by SPIEGEL reporter Edgar López. As a result, the situation in the city center is confusing and threatens to escalate, the atmosphere, especially near the main train station, is extremely heated. Among other things, objects and pyrotechnics flew mainly in the direction of the police, there were also skirmishes and blows.
The videos distributed on Twitter also show that group attacks are taking place and that the police are clearly overwhelmed by the situation. The protesters invaded a police chain and the officers withdrew.
The demonstration was preceded by a legal dispute.
The large demonstration was preceded by a legal dispute: the Bautzen Higher Administrative Court (OVG) had decided that the demonstration with 16,000 people could take place on Augustusplatz. Thus, the OVG annulled the decision of the administrative court, which had initially confirmed the conditions of the city on Friday night. The city wanted to move the rally to the parking lot of the Nueva Feria, about nine kilometers from the center.
Hundreds of counter-protesters also gathered in the city center. The Higher Administrative Court’s decision was an “official approval of a superpreader event with announcement,” said Irena Rudolph-Kokot of the “Leipzig Alliance takes place”. It was an imposition on the city and the citizens that the demonstrations were carried out in too small a space without keeping the distance. This would overturn the Crown Protection Ordinance, and people would feel like they are being “scammed.”
Around 200 people had already gathered in Leipzig’s market square on Friday night. According to the police, they registered a spontaneous demonstration in which they protested against the state’s crown measures. Many participants did not wear masks and did not maintain the minimum distance. A police spokesman said video recordings had been made and a complaint was being filed against the leader of the meeting.
