On Saturday afternoon the Brandenburg Gate in central Berlin is defeated. On the street, young people write in chalk photographs of flowers and hearts on the ground next to the words “Humanity, love, freedom”. Families stroll, some with full picnics packed in hand carts, as they head to Berlin’s Victory Column, eager to find a smart position for their camping chairs.
With some unidentifiable German pop music playing in the background, the feeling at the afternoon rally is reminiscent of a town festival, but a closer look at the T-shirts emblazoned with slogans suggests otherwise. Out the back of a hire truck, one man is closing a sale with an elderly, white-haired woman with a walking stick.
Police officers were deployed across the city to maintain order at the demonstration
“It’ll be €5 ($5.95),” he says, handing him a red T-shirt with the word “Querdenken” on his chest. These are the self-proclaimed “secondary thinkers”, the organizers of the manifestation of the German government’s measures to combat the coronavirus pandemic.
According to the Stuttgart-based group, some 20 Articles of the German Constitution are being violated by the restrictions imposed to tackle coronavirus. They want these to be lifted.
Back at the coronavirus skeptics’ demonstration, one protester carrying a Swedish flag in support of the country’s response to coronavirus said it was the media’s job to “report the truth that not all the protesters at the demo are far-right extremists.”
While talking to the protesters on Saturday, DW was attacked several times with chants of “Legenpresse!” (False press): a word that has also become popular among far-right populists. Other protesters have embraced the new trend of constantly photographing and filming journalists, broadcasting, talking to protesters or discussing where to eat a sandwich.
Permalian https://p.dw.com/p/3hiTh
Whether the protests of Saturday’s coronavirus skeptics would take a stand is a question about whether the Berlin government first banned the demonstration because of its unwillingness to stick to the coronavirus measures at a mass demonstration past 1 August.
Read more: Coronavirus: Germany weighs as infections rise
Protesters jumped the barriers and tried to make a typhoon in the Reichstag