Germany: Police brace for major coronavirus skeptic march in Düsseldorf

Thousands were expected to attend a protest on Sunday in the western German city of Düsseldorf against government restrictions imposed to combat the COVID-19 pandemic.

The organizers say they hope as many as 50,000 people will attend, while police say they are reckoning with some 10,000, according to the DPA news agency.

There are also several counterdemonstrations planned in the city.

Participants will not have to wear masks but must keep at a distance of at least 1.5 meters (5 feet) of others, as is stipulated by pandemic bylaws in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, of which Düsseldorf is the capital.

A regional branch of the Querdenken (Lateral Thinking) movement is behind the protest. The group has staged rallies across the country, including in the capital, Berlin.

Read more: Coronavirus: What you should know about tests

Berlin has seen some of the biggest rallies by critics of government pandemic measures

Diversity of views

Previous protests have attracted participants who, while united in their rejection of the government’s strategy to manage the pandemic, represent a wide range of worldviews.

They include people opposed to vaccines who see the pandemic as a hoax intended to generate revenue for big pharmaceutical companies and often cite Microsoft founder and philanthropist Bill Gates as the instigator. Others see the pandemic as real, but as having been caused by the 5G cellular networks currently being rolled out across the world. Still others believe the measures taken to prevent COVID-19 spreading are an example of government overreach leading to authoritarianism.

Of greatest concern to authorities, however, is the contingent of far-right protesters who use the protests as a platform for propagating their often anti-Semitic ideology. Some have been seen at previous rallies carrying the former imperial flag, often used as a symbol by the far right.

At a protest in Berlin on August 29, a group of such protesters rushed the steps of the Reichstag building, provoking widespread outrage.

In contrast, a protest last weekend in Munich, which took place on the site of the world-famous Oktoberfest — canceled this year because of the pandemic — was largely peaceful. Some 120 participants from the crowd of 10,000 are facing legal action, however, most of them for their failure to wear masks.

Read more: Munich bans alcohol on Oktoberfest grounds due to coronavirus 

Article source: https://www.dw.com/en/germany-police-brace-for-major-coronavirus-skeptic-march-in-d%C3%BCsseldorf/a-54993225?maca=en-rss-en-ger-1023-xml-atom