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German President Frank Walter Steinmeier has condemned as an “attack on our democracy” the attempt by a far-right mafia to rush the Berlin Reichstag after a weekend rally against coronavirus restrictions.
At around 8 p.m. Saturday, a group of protesters, including many neo-Nazis, broke through the protective barriers and ran up the stairs of the building. Police in riot gear pushed them back with pepper spray.
It was a dramatic end to a demonstration that drew 50,000 people from across the country to Berlin. Police said some 300 people were arrested in skirmishes on the sidelines of the main event. Images of the confrontation in front of the Reichstag, the seat of the Bundestag parliament, caused outrage on Sunday across the political spectrum.
Many protesters waved the historic “Reichs flag” in black, white and red, others displayed extremist symbols or wore clothing preferred by neo-Nazis.
‘Unbearable attack’
“The Reich flags and a far-right mob in front of the German Bundestag are an unbearable attack on our democracy. We will never accept it, ”Steinmeier said.
On Saturday afternoon, in scenes rarely seen except during major football tournaments, a 2 km stretch from the Brandenburg Gate to the Siegessäule (Victory Column) was filled with protesters.
Robert F. Kennedy, a vaccine skeptic and son of the slain American politician, attacked political leaders for, he claimed, using the pandemic to spread fear and impose a new surveillance state.
Half a century ago, after John F Kennedy visited Berlin, then a frontier of the cold war against totalitarianism, Kennedy delighted the crowd by repeating his uncle’s most famous catchphrase, but in a very different context. “Today Berlin is once again a front against totalitarianism,” he said to great applause. “And so I am proud to say, ‘Ich bin ein Berliner.’
Restrictive measures
The march was organized by the Querdenken (Lateral Thought) group. Its founder, Michael Ballweg, a businessman from Stuttgart, urged the crowds, some huddled together, some spread out in the park and none in masks, not to tolerate violence between them.
“We demand the lifting of all restrictive measures introduced and the resignation of the entire federal government,” he said, prompting a 40-second wave of applause from the crowd. “We are Democrats. Left and right extremism and fascist thinking have no place in this movement. We ignore all attempts to pigeonhole us as left or right. “
After the Reichstag scenes, Bundestag President Wolfgang Schäuble said on Sunday that the right of assembly does not absolve people of the “responsibility not to be exploited by extremists.”
Many participants expressed concern about their civil liberties and the proportionality of the pandemic measures.
Before the main meeting, police interrupted a march through the city center at lunchtime on Saturday because protesters refused to wear masks or observe social distancing.
The main protest drew protesters of all ages, from Munich retirees to Frankfurt engineers. Between the rainbow peace flags and the Israeli flags were hundreds of homemade banners with messages ranging from “Health, not pharmaceutical benefit” and “Crown is a declaration of war by the elite against the majority.”
Some signs linked to the QAnon conspiracy theory were observed; others carried anti-mask posters and protested the rise of “health fascism.”
Civil liberties
Many participants expressed concern about their civil liberties and the proportionality of the pandemic measures. “We are really concerned that people are allowing themselves to be scared and manipulated, and that our basic rights are being eroded,” said Svenja, a 22-year-old student from Nuremberg.
A police spokesman said 3,000 officers supervised Saturday’s events, which were largely peaceful, apart from the Reichstag clash and a fight outside the Russian embassy, where about 200 people were arrested. A counterdemonstration attracted a few hundred participants.
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