BRUSSELS (AP) – Belgian police used water cannon and tear gas Sunday to disperse rowdy protesters in Brussels after demonstrators protested tightened COVID-19 restrictions that aim to counter a surge of coronavirus infections.
Thousands came to reject the new measures announced Friday, the third week in a row that the government has tightened its rules as an avalanche of new cases strains the country’s health services, depriving people with other life-threatening diseases of treatment.
Shouting “Freedom! Freedom!” and carrying banners that said, “United for our freedom, rights and our children,” protesters marched to the European Union headquarters. Some also carried signs critical of vaccines and against making vaccine shots mandatory.
The main crowd in Sunday’s march had already dispersed when about a 100 protesters ran into a riot police barricade cordoning off access to the European Commission. After a brief stand-off with police, protesters hurdled trash and other objects, including a bicycle, at police and set off firecrackers and flares. Police used water cannon and fired tear gas to disperse the crowd.
Tens of thousands of protesters marched through several northwest European cities on Saturday to demonstrate against coronavirus restrictions imposed amid a surge in infections.
Austria last month became the first country in Western Europe to reimpose a lockdown, which is set to last 20 days, and said it would make vaccinations mandatory from February.
Some of the more than 40,000 demonstrators in Vienna carried signs reading, “I will decide for myself,” “Make Austria Great Again” and “New Elections” - a nod to the political turmoil that has seen three chancellors within two months.
Around 1,200 police officers deployed for the march on the central Ring boulevard, and a 1,500-strong counter-protest, both allowed under the terms of Austria’s lockdown.
In the central Dutch town of Utrecht several thousand demonstrated against restrictions that began last weekend.
Protesters carried banners reading “Medical Freedom Now!”, with a large police contingent present. It was the first major demonstration in the Netherlands against the measures, which include a nighttime closure of bars, restaurants, and most stores to stem a wave of COVID-19 cases that is threatening to overwhelm the healthcare system.
In the German financial capital, Frankfurt, police broke up a demonstration of several hundred people for failing to wear masks or maintain social distancing, using batons and pepper spray after they were attacked by a group of protesters.
And in Berlin, where a new government is set to take office within days, small groups gathered to protest after a large demonstration was banned.
German politicians broadly condemned a protest by opponents of coronavirus restrictions that took place late on Friday outside the home of Petra Koepping, health minister in the eastern state of Saxony, which currently has Germany’s highest infection rate. Some said it smacked of Nazi-era intimidation.