An activist wearing a face mask and a helmet in coronavirus design takes part in a demonstration on May 27, 2020 in front of the Chancellery in Berlin in a protest against the government's plan to support German airline Lufthansa without demanding compensatory measures for state help from the airline. The coronavirus-stricken carrier faces an arduous years-long recovery from the novel coronavirus / COVID-19 pandemic. The German government is planning to help Lufthansa in a nine-billion-euro ($9.8 billion) rescue if investors and competition authorities agree. Environmental activists criticise that the help will be given without attaching contitions to it, such as measures for climate protection. (Photo by Tobias SCHWARZ / AFP)
German ministers and other senior officials on Sunday condemned violence that broke out in eastern city Leipzig at a demonstration against coronavirus infection control measures.
“Nothing can justify what was seen in Leipzig,” Justice Minister Christine Lambrecht said in a statement posted to Twitter.
“The mockery of science and the far-right incitement we’ve seen are appalling,” she added, condemning attacks on police and the press.
More than 20,000 people, most of them unmasked, gathered in the Saxon city on Saturday, and many refused a police order to disperse after ignoring requests to wear face coverings and keep a distance of 1.5 metres between participants.
Rather than leave, demonstrators set off on a march down one of the city’s major streets, attacking police and journalists and throwing objects including fireworks, police said.
Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said those “endangering fellow people, attacking police and journalists, spreading extreme-right hate and setting alight barricades at counter-demonstrations have left the protection” for protest guaranteed under Germany’s constitution.
Chancellor Angela Merkel’s spokesman Steffen Seibert did not comment directly on the violence, but recalled that demonstrators are bound by infection control measures.
Violence continued into the evening in Leipzig, and a police spokesman told AFP there had been “arrests”.
Germany has in recent days hit new records for coronavirus infections above 23,000 in a single day, while the number of dead since the pandemic began has mounted to 11,226.
Unlike some European neighbours like France, the country has not ordered a nationwide lockdown.
But the discipline most Germans have shown so far in following government-ordered measures has been tinged with discontent in some quarters.
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