Far-right extremists on Saturday tried to storm the German parliament building following a protest against the country’s COVID-19 pandemic restrictions, but were intercepted by police and forcibly removed.
The incident occurred after a day-long demonstration by tens of thousands of people opposed to the wearing of masks and other government measures intended to stop the spread of the novel coronavirus.
Police ordered the protesters to disband halfway through their march around Berlin after participants refused to observe social distancing rules, but a rally near the capital’s iconic Brandenburg Gate took place as planned.
Photo: Reuters
Footage of the incident showed hundreds of people, some waving the flag of the German Reich of 1871 to 1918 and other far-right banners, running toward the Reichstag building and up the stairs.
Police confirmed on Twitter that several people had broken through a cordon in front of parliament and “entered the staircase of the Reichstag building, but not the building itself.”
“Stones and bottles were thrown at our colleagues,” police said. “Force had to be used to push them back.”
Germany’s top security official condemned the incident.
“The Reichstag building is the workplace of our parliament and therefore the symbolic center of our liberal democracy,” German Minister of the Interior Horst Seehofer said in a statement.
“It’s unbearable that vandals and extremists should misuse it,” he said, calling on authorities to show “zero tolerance.”
Earlier, thousands of far-right extremists had thrown bottles and stones at police outside the Russian embassy.
Police detained about 300 people throughout the day.
Berlin’s regional government had tried to ban the protests, saying that extremists could use them as a platform and citing anti-mask rallies earlier this month where rules intended to stop the virus from being spread further were not respected.
Protest organizers successfully appealed the decision on Friday, although a court ordered them to ensure social distancing. Failure to enforce that measure prompted Berlin police to dissolve the march while it was still in progress.
During the march, which authorities said drew about 38,000 people, participants expressed their opposition to a wide range of issues, including vaccinations, masks and the German government in general.
Some wore T-shirts promoting the “QAnon” conspiracy theory, while others displayed white nationalist slogans and neo-Nazi insignia, although most participants denied having far-right views.
Uwe Bachmann, 57, said he had come from southwestern Germany to protest for free speech and his right not to wear a mask.
“I respect those who are afraid of the virus,” said Bachmann, who was wearing a costume and a wig that tried to evoke stereotypical Native American attire.
He suggested, without elaborating, that “something else” was behind the pandemic.
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