German authorities are banning protests in Berlin weeks after massive demonstrations against coronavirus restrictions filled the streets of the capital city.
Andreas Geisel, Berlin’s top security official, said on Wednesday that the need to counter the spread of the coronavirus had forced officials in the country to revise the rights of citizens to protest.
“We need to weigh the basic right of freedom of assembly against the sanctity of life,” Geisel said. “We chose life.”
Nearly 15,000 people spilled into the streets of Berlin on Aug. 1 to demonstrate against lockdown measures that have shooed citizens into their homes in an attempt to mitigate the spread of the highly contagious disease.
Protesters, some of whom were associated with the far right in Germany, chanted messages that questioned the lockdown measures. Some of the assembled protesters accused state officials of robbing citizens of their freedom.
The ban on large gatherings to protest the government’s response to the coronavirus will go into effect ahead of a Sept. 4 anti-lockdown protest that was planned for Berlin.
Almost 10,000 people in Germany have died from the coronavirus, according to a Johns Hopkins coronavirus tracker.
