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The German interior minister said on Sunday that the incidents in Berlin on Saturday during the demonstration against restrictions related to the covid-19 pandemic, which resulted in 300 arrests, were unacceptable.
In a text published in the German newspaper Bild, Horst Seehofer regretted seeing extremists trying to force their way into the Reichstag building, the seat of the Chamber of Deputies and the symbolic center of German democracy.
The demonstration took place on Saturday against the restrictions imposed to contain the covid-19 pandemic and where police intervention was necessary to disperse the protesters, since safety regulations are not respected.
During the night, several hundred protesters forced security fences and a police check on the stairs leading to the Reichstag.
Police prevented these protesters from entering the building, using ‘aerosols’ to disperse the crowd and arrested several people.
In total, according to AFP, the demonstration gathered 38,000 people according to the police, double what was initially expected, with around 300 people arrested in clashes with the police.
The Reichstag, where German deputies meet in plenary, has a strong symbolic charge in Germany, as it was burned down in 1933 by the Nazis.
According to the German minister, “plurality of opinions” is a characteristic of the proper functioning of a society, but freedom of expression is reaching its limits when public norms are not respected, he writes.
The Berlin regional government had banned the rally, noting that in similar protests in recent weeks, protesters did not respect rules such as wearing a mask or social detachment, but organizers appealed to justice and a court authorized the rally.
The court ruled that it is not mandatory to wear a mask in the protest, but that the participants must keep a distance of 1.5 meters between them.
