lockdown germany plague mask
© Reuters / Christian MangA demonstrator attends a rally against the government's restrictions amid the coronavirus outbreak in Berlin, Germany on March 13, 2021.
Several separate rallies were held in Germany's capital city of Berlin. The largest one, with some 1,000 people in attendance according to police estimates, began at noon outside the federal health ministry.

The event was not marred by any major incident, the police said, with the officers present at the scene primarily focused on checking that participants were properly masked.

Another large protest was held in the southwestern city of Stuttgart, with hundreds marching through the streets to decry the restrictions. The event has not seen any major incidents either.


Minor clashes between the police and protesters have been reported in the eastern German city of Dresden. Despite failing to secure authorization for the event, hundreds of anti-lockdown activists gathered in the city's center, while law enforcement tried to push them back and urged them to disperse in an orderly manner.

The first anti-coronavirus restrictions were rolled out across Germany on March 13 last year, with most of the country's states ordering the closure of schools and nurseries, while Bundesliga opted to postpone all its football matches. The restrictions have been repeatedly eased and re-tightened across the country since then.

Last month, the government presented a five-step plan that envisions gradual lifting of the measures depending on the seven-day Covid-19 infection rate. Still, a full reopening might not come anytime soon, as the country has seen cases rise in recent weeks.

Moreover, Germany may face a new spike in April on par with - and above - the figures registered ahead of Christmas last year, experts with the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) for infectious diseases have warned.

"An extrapolation of the trends shows that case numbers can be expected above the Christmas level from week 14 onwards," the RKI said in its current situation report on Saturday.

So far, Germany has registered over 2.5 million cases of coronavirus, including more than 73,000 deaths, according to the latest RKI figures.




Danish anti-lockdown activist gets double jail time for inciting violence... after telling crowd to 'smash city in non-violent way'

Denmark lockdown protest
© Reuters / Philip Davali / Ritzau ScanpixProtesters assemble next to the Copenhagen City Court building in Denmark on March 12, 2021.
The activist is the first protester hit by a law enabling courts to double sentences for Covid-related offenses.

The unusually harsh ruling was announced by the Copenhagen court on Friday. The defendant, a 30-year-old woman, was found guilty of making offensive statements that contributed to a "gross disturbance of public order as well as the use of violence against police" during an anti-lockdown protest in early January.

"Are you ready to walk around and smash the city in a non-violent way?" she addressed the crowd outside Copenhagen's City Hall during the protest. "The people in parliament. Smash the system."

The woman, who has remained in custody since January 28, pleaded not guilty, while her attorneys called for an acquittal. However, the court argued that the "non-violent" part of her statement did not count, as the defendant reiterated her call to "smash" things twice.

The January protest ultimately devolved into clashes between the anti-lockdown marchers and law enforcement. The police were shot at with fireworks and pelted with various projectiles, while several protesters were arrested during the turbulent event.

The hearings sparked a new, smaller protest outside the court with dozens showing up to condemn the trial. The crowd booed at the police, as well as the prosecutor as he left the building after the hearing.

Under normal circumstances, the woman's offenses would have seen her get up to one year behind bars. But she became the first protester to get hit by a controversial Covid-related rule, adopted in Sweden late in 2020 in response to scams and several thefts of face masks and hand sanitizer at hospitals. According to the provision, the country's courts can double sentencing if an "offense has a background in or connection with the Covid-19 epidemic in Denmark."

The application of the new rule to the woman's case has already come under fire from several Danish politicians, who condemned the punishment as too harsh and the whole double sentencing provision as absurd.

"Completely insane to get a doubled sentence for corona critique. You shouldn't have to fear a double punishment for demonstrating against the government," central-left MP Kristian Hegaard said on Twitter.

A former minister of economy and interior, Simon Emil Ammitzboll-Bille, who is currently an independent MP, slammed the verdict as too harsh as well, arguing that far worse crimes yield smaller jail terms.

"There are people who have received less for incest and violence against children. Denmark, I'm ashamed!" the politician stated.