Dozens of Rallies Across Germany as Anti-Lockdown Protests Continue

Dozens of rallies have taken place across Germany, as tens of thousands continue to protest COVID restrictions in the federal republic.

Tens of thousands of people took to the street again on Monday in Germany, as dozens of rallies in opposition to COVID rules took place across the federal republic.

The events followed a weekend of anti-lockdown demonstrations in the country, with thousands of people turning up to protests in Hamburg, Saarland, Düsseldorf and beyond on Saturday and Sunday to march against measures.

According to a report by Bild, police counted around 30 separate demonstrations taking place in Upper Bavaria alone, while Die Zeit reported that around 15,000 people protested in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania across 20 separate locations.

Meanwhile, around 17,300 individuals protested measures in Thuringia, while around 3,000 took part in an unannounced march through the city centre in Cottbus.

A further one thousand also took part in a declared demonstration in Bonn.

Proceedings across the country were mostly peaceful, though one notable exception to this rule took place in Schweinfurt, where a woman was arrested after biting a police officer in the leg, with Bild reporting that the officer was “slightly injured” by the incident.

A number of counter-demos also took place on Monday, though Bild describes them as being small.

At one counter-protest in Bayreuth, counter-demonstrators reportedly held aloft a banner reading “Corona makes you sick. Thinking outside the box makes you stupid”.

Monday’s protests follow a demonstration-filled weekend in Germany, as the country continues to tighten restrictions in the hopes of limiting the spread of the Chinese Coronavirus.

Thousands turned up to a demonstration in Hamburg on Saturday, shortly after the city banned unboosted and untested individuals from restaurants and bars under so-called “2G plus” rules.

Meanwhile, it has been announced that unjabbed politicians will be completely banned from entering the chamber of the German parliament, while those who have been vaccinated, but not boosted, will be required to provide proof of a negative test in order to gain entry.

Unvaccinated representatives will be permitted to attend proceedings via the visitors’ stands, should they be able to provide proof of a negative test.

However, those without such proof will be banned from taking part in proceedings entirely.

A number of politicians have criticised the move, calling the measure an attack on democracy.

“The vaccination apartheid has arrived in Bundestag,” wrote Alternative für Deutschland MdB Joana Cotar online. “Normal work, proper participation in the plenary sessions is no longer possible for those who have not been vaccinated. All of this has nothing to do with health care, it is pure harassment and branding of the unvaccinated.”