Germany: police clash with protesters against virus measures

March 20, 2021

BERLIN (AP) — Protesters in a central German city clashed with police on Saturday over coronavirus measures, with officers using pepper spray and batons against people trying to break through police barriers, the German news agency dpa reported.

Several thousand people participated in the protests in Kassel, and in addition to clashes with police there were also several scuffles with counter-protesters. Several groups, most of them far-right opponents of government's regulations to fight the pandemic, had called for protests Saturday in cities across the country.

In Berlin, some 1,800 police officers were on standby for possible riots, but only a few dozen protesters assembled at the city's landmark Brandenburg Gate. Meanwhile, around 300 citizens came together on Berlin's Unter den Linden boulevard to protest against the far-right demonstration.

Police had to intervene when some far-right protesters tried to attack press photographers, but in general, a police spokeswoman told dpa, “there's not much going on here.”