Hundreds of people were arrested at a massive anti-coronavirus restriction protest in Berlin.
An estimated 38,000 people attended the Saturday demonstration, which the Berlin government had tried to prevent, given the coronavirus pandemic. Despite officials’ attempts to stop the gathering, a court allowed the protest to go forward as long as social distancing was maintained. Berlin police said that the demonstrators did not do so.
“Unfortunately, we have no other option,” Berlin police said on Twitter about breaking up the event. “All the measures taken so far have not led to compliance with the conditions.”
The march split into two groups, according to the BBC, with about 200 people arrested after rocks and bottles began to be hurled at police officers. Berlin’s interior minister Andreas Geisel labeled the group as “extremist,” Reuters reported.
The second group of about 30,000 people was allowed to continue demonstrating because protesters followed social distancing guidelines, Geisel said.
Spotted among the crowd were signs reading, “Stop the corona lies” and “Merkel must go.” Proponents of the QAnon conspiracy theory were also seen carrying banners, NBC News reported. QAnon is a fringe movement in the United States that is based on the notion that the country is controlled by a secret cabal of cannibalistic pedophiles.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the nephew of former President John F. Kennedy and an anti-vaccination campaigner, also spoke at the event. He harkened back to his uncle’s 1963 Berlin speech and said that “today Berlin is again the front against totalitarianism.”
Thousands of police had been deployed to the area in anticipation of the protests, which were accompanied by smaller demonstrations in Paris, London, Vienna, and Zurich.
Worldwide, there have been nearly 25 million reported cases of COVID-19 and more than 839,000 deaths since the virus first emerged in China in late 2019.
