A furious woman shouts as she gestures at riot police in Vienna, Austria on Saturday, January 8
Members of the French ministerial cabinet agreed to lift certain travel rules designed to prevent Brits from travelling into the country earlier this week as Omicron tightened its grip on France with over 330,000 new Covid cases recorded.
Comment: It's telling that the best they can come up with is 'cases'. If it meant anything, they wouldn't be relaxing the travel ban.
Gabriel Attal, spokesperson for the French Government, confirmed that the list of reasons for which UK travellers would be permitted entry into France would be expanded to now also allow in-person work to be completed in the country.
Thousands of Germans, baring banners and holding flags, gathered in Magdeburg, Germany on Saturday January 8
GERMANY: Riot officers use spray to push back against an advancing line of protestors during a huge demonstration in Magdeburg, Germany on Saturday January 8
Reports from French media suggest that while restrictions are only understood to be loosening for businesses at present, the easing of restrictions for travellers and tourists is expected to follow shortly after.
FRANCE: Protestors also gathered in large crowds in Paris on Saturday, January 8, to demand an end to the nation's mandatory vaccine pass for social settings
In Austria, riot police watched on as hundreds of furious demonstrators were pictured marching through the streets of Vienna in protest at the nation's Covid curbs.
Marches were also seen in Paris and Magdeburg, Germany, as thousands joined together in protest against what are perceived to be excessively strict restrictions and mandatory vaccinations.
Comment: 'Hundreds', 'thousands' - we know that the media downplay the numbers so it remains to be seen just how many were really in attendance. However it does seem that these protests have picked up apace now that the holidays are over, and governments have made it clear they intend to continue tightening the screws.
AUSTRIA: A column of anti-riot police grapple with protestors in Vienna as the crowd's demonstrations against Covid curbs turned ugly
The travel constraints, which barred all Brits from any non-essential travel into France, included stopping legal French residents at the border, as Macron's government singled out the UK amid claims the ban was designed to slow the arrival of the super-mutant Omicron variant.
And while England's Covid cases appear to be plateauing since the turn of the new year, France recorded more than 332,000 fresh infections in the country on Wednesday - a new high mark since the pandemic began.
The French President faced stinging criticism from travel experts when the ban was instigated, who immediately pointed out that Omicron was already prevalent in the country and made up a higher proportion of French cases according to data at that time.
Comment: And yet no significant rise in hospitalizations or mortality was recorded, further demonstrating just how mild coronavirus, and its variants, including omicron, are.
Senior industry figures across the Channel also warned that several holiday and ski resorts faced the prospect of economic 'catastrophe' this month unless the ban is lifted.
MailOnline understands the decision to came in the days leading up to France's recent Omicron surge, where cases now stand higher than those seen in Britain.
Currently, the sole reasons accepted for UK-based travel into France include for 'urgent' family matters or to travel back to main residence in Great Britain through the country.
Non-EU citizens are still banned from travelling for tourism or leisure, and proof of a negative Covid-19 pre-departure test is still required.
All travellers from the UK - including the fully vaccinated - are required to immediately quarantine upon their arrival into France, but their mandatory self-isolation period can end after two days if they provide a negative PCR test.
It comes as French President Emmanuel Macron admitted he planned to 'pi** off' unvaccinated people by making their lives so complicated they would end up getting jabbed.
Comment: 'Complicated' is a rather Orwellian turn of phrase.
'By - and I'm sorry for putting it this way - by p***ing them off even more,' he said on Tuesday.
Macron, 44, made the cutting remark while responding to a nurse during a question and answer session with readers of Le Parisien on how the government will handle non-vaccinated people.
The phrase prompted howls of condemnation from rivals and forced parliament to suspend a debate on a Covid-19 bill today as opposition lawmakers demanded explanations from Macron.
He added: 'I'm generally opposed to the French being p****d off. I complain all the time about administrative blockages.
'But when it comes to the non-vaccinated, I'm very keen to pi** them off. So we're going to do it, the end. That's our strategy.'
Comment: Well, at least Macron is being honest; it's not about health, it's about coercing the recalcitrant into suffering the experimental jabs. The jabs that have demonstrably caused a surge of cases everywhere they've been rolled out.
Meanwhile, Germans were warned the country must revamp its vaccination strategy to tackle the Omicron variant and to ensure it can develop a new vaccine rapidly if it faces a more deadly coronavirus variant in the future, Germany's new Health Minister warned.
Karl Lauterbach, who was appointed health minister last month, made his comments in an advanced release of an interview to be published in the Welt am Sonntag newspaper on Sunday.
'If we get a variant that is as contagious as Omicron, but significantly more deadly, we should be able to develop and produce a new vaccine in a very short time,' Lauterbach said.
The government is planning to put a permanent system in place to purchase and provide shots rapidly at any given time because there could be serious new outbreaks, he said.
'We must not fall into the naive assumption that it (the pandemic) will be over soon. It's not over,' he said.
Comment: It never really started.
Germany closed large vaccination centres in several states last summer when demand for COVID-19 shots briefly declined to a trickle before picking up again.
Comment: That's because Germany began to enforce restrictions which required people be jabbed. Notably, 57% of Germans don't trust the governments Covid stats.
The Omicron variant now accounts for 44% of coronavirus infections in Germany, the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) for infectious disease said.
On Saturday, the RKI counted 55,889 newly reported corona infections within 24 hours, more than double the number a week earlier.
Chancellor Olaf Scholz and regional leaders tightened the rules for restaurant and bar visits on Friday as part of efforts to encourage more people to get a third vaccination, or booster shot, but shortened quarantine periods.
Comment: By now, even those that buy into the propaganda have some inkling that the injections don't prevent transmission, they don't prevent infection, and so the official narrative is falling apart, which is why the messaging has shifted a little to 'vaccines prevent the recipient from suffering serious illness; which isn't backed up by any hard science.
The Bundestag lower house of parliament will also soon discuss a draft bill for a general vaccination mandate.
On Saturday, Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer confirmed he was well and had no COVID-19 symptoms after testing positive for Covid this week, vowing to do everything possible to prevent another nationwide lockdown.
Nehammer, a conservative who has received three vaccine shots, has been conducting official business from home via video and telephone conferences since he tested positive.
'Thanks to the vaccine, thank goodness, I'm doing well,' he told Austrian radio in an interview. 'I don't have any symptoms.'
'The studies verify that with the Omicron variant, three vaccination doses give particular protection. That's been my experience too,' said Nehammer, who will not attend any public appointments in the next few days.
Comment: A rather peculiar protection.
He was apparently infected on Wednesday following contact with a member of his security team who tested positive on Thursday, the chancellery said on Friday.
Nehammer, 49, announced new measures this week to curb the spread of the coronavirus and pressed on with plans to make vaccination mandatory from next month.
'The priority now is using the strongest possible protection measures for everyone to try to prevent a new lockdown. Because a lockdown is very burdensome for people,' he said on Saturday.
Austria's interior ministry registered 7,405 new coronavirus cases on Saturday. Since the start of the pandemic, 13,844 people have died in the country after contracting the virus.
450 Millions .............................
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