Protesters storm Reichstag during mass Covid protest
Around 300 people were arrested in scuffles with police
Berlin, Aug. 30: German leaders on Sunday condemned the “unacceptable” attempt by protesters to storm the Reichstag parliament building during a mass rally against coronavirus restrictions.
Some of the protesters on Saturday carried the flag of the former German Reich which was used up until the end of the First World War.
“Flags from the Reich and far-right profanity in front of the German parliament are an unacceptable attack on the heart of our democracy,” President Frank-Walter Steinmeier said on Instagram. “We will never accept this”.
Police said some 38,000 people, double the number expected, had gathered in Berlin on Saturday to protest restrictions imposed to curb the spread of the Coronavirus, such as the wearing of masks and social distancing.
Late Saturday, several hundred broke through barriers and a police cordon to climb the steps leading to the entrance to the Reichstag.
About 300 people were arrested in front of the Reichstag and following an incident at the Russian embassy, according to
police.
They were narrowly prevented from entering the building by police, who used pepper spray and arrested several people.
Police initially appeared overwhelmed, as only a
handful of officers were there to block the crowd.
“We cannot be present everywhere and it is precisely these weaknesses in the deployment that were exploited, in this case to cross the security barriers
in order to reach the steps of the Reichstag,” said local police spokesman Thilo Cablitz.
The Reichstag, where German deputies meet, has a powerful symbolic role in the country. The
building, with its famous dome, was burnt down by the Nazis in 1933 in an act aimed at destroying what remained of German democracy between the two world wars.