Corona crisscrossed protests in Frankfurt after demonstration ban

WITHu The heated arguments with the feared “side thinkers” despite the ban on demonstrations did not take place in Frankfurt on Saturday, but the mood grew more irritable as the day progressed. A police spokesman called the situation “peaceful and manageable” in the early afternoon, but around 3pm the situation became more precarious, especially at the main station. A small group of lateral thinkers had gathered there, and counter-protesters, in significantly larger numbers, arrived quickly. People shouted at each other and there were arguments.

A group of around 50 antifa activists had installed themselves behind banners at the “Galeria Kaufhof” and refused to open the street in front of the department stores. Police placed a water cannon in position and repeatedly, unsuccessfully, asked the group to separate. Eventually the police pushed the protesters off the street, there was a scuffle and finally the protesters withdrew.

Federal Constitutional Court rejects urgent request

All judicial authorities up to the Federal Constitutional Court had confirmed the city’s decision to ban rallies and a demonstration march of up to 40,000 crown deniers through downtown Frankfurt this third Saturday of Advent due to the high risk of infection. However, due to the calls on social networks, there was the possibility that a large number of “lateral thinkers” could generate discomfort as “walkers”.

Hundreds of policemen, some of them from other federal states, had to initially signal only the obligation to wear masks and keep their distance on the Zeil, the Hauptwache and the Konstablerwache. Only in isolated cases, for example in the Römerberg, did the police initially have conversations with supporters of the initiatives, who accuse politicians of taking inappropriate action with the restrictions to protect themselves against infections.

In other places in the city, such as at Friedberger Platz or Merianplatz, the meetings were classified as surrogate events and consequently disbanded, as announced by the police via Twitter.

The left groups that had called for protests mostly lacked their “opponents” on Saturday; they had announced that they wanted to block the “lateral thinkers” demonstration routes. Around 350 sympathizers of the alliance “Solidarity through Crisis” and “Enlightenment instead of conspiracy theories” moved from Bockenheimer Warte to the Rothschildpark in the early afternoon; there the meeting broke up, according to the police. Later Antifa supporters occupied Schweizer Platz, apparently because he had heard that “lateral thinkers” wanted to demonstrate there. The police opened a water cannon, but did so again when the black-clad activists left on their own initiative.

Only in the afternoon, shortly before 3 in the afternoon, about two hours after the start of the first rallies, the Federal Constitutional Court decided that the ban on demonstrations by “lateral thinkers” did not violate their fundamental rights.

In the morning, in the second instance, the Administrative Court of Hesse, as on Friday, the local administrative court confirmed the decision of the city to ban all events by the crown deniers. The central argument: the organizers had not come up with a concept that ensured that the distance rules would be observed. The initiatives had submitted a “position paper of the Society for Aerosol Research” to the Administrative Court, according to which the risk of transmission of the coronavirus outdoors was very low. However, the Senate referred to other findings, including those of the Robert Koch Institute, according to which there is such a risk of infection when people gather outdoors.

The judges justified their urgent decision with the fact that when weighing the consequences of protecting the fundamental right to life and physical integrity of the general population, in this case the violation of the fundamental right to freedom of assembly was justified.