They were 20 000 tight against each other, without a mask, to parade Saturday with cries of " Resistance ! Resistance ! ", "We are the second wave !" or " Stop, that's enough ! Too, is too ! ". On the avenue of the 17 of June which dates back to the Brandenburg gate in Berlin, a nebula weird people united by a common belief : the corona is a small influenza harmless, a threat invented by governments to better manipulate the citizens and reduce their freedoms. 690 000 people died of the Covid-19 in the world ? In the figures, is referred to by these rebels, who have been inflated in order to sow panic.
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Since several months already, these opponents to the hygiene measures taken by the government to stop the pandemic, marched regularly in the streets of the country. For this mega-event in Berlin, they came from all over Germany, and especially from the south. Coaches special had been chartered in Stuttgart and Düsseldorf branch in the German capital. Families with children, groups of retirees, right-wing extremists, young Berliners, who were protesting against the slow agony of the clubs closed for months, old and sixty, when they asked peace of Stuttgart, this protest movement is diverse and brings together people from very different backgrounds. There are followers of beliefs in esoteric and new age, anti-vaccines, complotistes convinced that this pandemic is a coup mounted by the pharmaceutical industry in search of profits or a manoeuvre subtle billionaire and philanthropist Bill Gates, who would have cultivated and spread the virus to impose compulsory vaccination and generalize the implantation of chips under the skin of people to check if they have been tested.
" Merkel muss weg ! "
No less worrisome, the very conspicuous presence in the crowd of activists, neo-nazis wearing it with pride banners and t-shirts, such as groups of the extreme right Patriotic Opposition to Europe, the activists of Zukunft Heimat (the future of the fatherland) from Cottbus, or even the activists virulent come from the small town of Kandel, Rhineland-Palatinate, where a young girl of 15 years had been killed in 2017 by an afghan refugee. Kandel is the epicentre of the protest against the asylum policy of Angela Merkel. Among the protesters are also leaders and activists of the AfD, the right-wing populist party losing speed since the beginning of the pandemic.
What unites all these people from diverse backgrounds, it is a contempt tenacious to politics and the media. "Merkel muss weg ! "(Merkel must go !), would chant in a group so that the curve of popularity of the chancellor is at its zenith since the beginning of the pandemic. On Saturday, protesters spat on journalists, insulted and jostled tv crews. A team, threatened physically, had even been forced to interrupt his shooting. The protesters, who define themselves as " true democrats ", give themselves the noble task of resisting a corrupt system.
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in the Face of this trend disturbing, the German authorities are trapped in a paradox. In a country where the right to protest is one of the pillars of the Constitution, one tries not to stifle freedom of expression by prohibiting gatherings, even if they may endanger the public health. But the Berliners are angry that the procession of no-masks, has chosen their town to protest. "Why do they stay not at home to Stuttgart to infect each other instead of circulating in all the countries to come with us to Berlin ?" said one of them. 1 100 police officers had been dispatched to monitor the progress of the event, including the ultimate hard core has been dispersed only at the end of six hours. The next day, Sunday, a few hundred hard-to-cook had returned in front of the Brandenburg gate for several hours.
The mayor of Berlin "aghast"
voices were raised in protest against the "laxity" of the forces of order, who should have acted more firmly and more quickly. Mainly present to prevent clashes with counter-demonstrators, the police have not been willing to take risks. Only the organizers of the manif will need to pay fines of up to € 5,000 for breaking the regulation on hygiene measures to follow during the pandemic. The mayor of Berlin, Michael Müller, who had refused, in the name of freedom of expression, to prohibit the event, was, him, said " aghast ".
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This event is all the more disturbing is that the virus has started to spread more rapidly in Germany, where fears of a second wave. The latest figures recently published show a very marked resurgence of infections in this country, though ranked as one of the safest in the world. If the vast majority of the population behaves very disciplined, the atmosphere of the summer holiday returns and, in a few days, the start of classes in some of the Länder represent an increased risk.
The case is in any case serious enough to have provoked, on Monday morning, a strong intervention was key to the president Frank-Walter Steinmeier. In a video, he asked the Germans to continue to comply with the measures of protection against the Covid-19. He said that the irresponsible attitude of a few is a risk for everyone and endangers the recovery of the economy. About Markus Söder, minister-president of Bavaria, whose name is on everyone's lips at this time for a successor to Angela Merkel in a year, he already sees the second wave swept over Germany and demands that we put an end without delay to this generous déconfinement.
