Rage across Europe as Covid rules trigger riots
Violence erupts after new wave of virus spreads at ‘lightning speed’ on Continent
EUROPE last night faced an increasingly violent backlash against fresh Covid restrictions imposed to deal with a record number of new cases on the Continent.
Riot police used water cannons and tear gas as peaceful demonstrations turned ugly in Brussels when tens of thousands of protesters marched through the streets.
Demonstrators smashed the glass at the entrance to a European Commission building after young men in hoods attacked police vans with baseball bats.
It followed a second night of disorder in the Netherlands on Saturday over the introduction of new coronavirus restrictions, when police opened fire on the crowds, wounding at least four people.
There were also violent scenes in Austria, Italy, Croatia, Denmark and Switzerland over the weekend amid clampdowns by European governments on civil liberties to curb a steep increase in the number of infections that are putting healthcare systems under strain.
Austria’s interior minister yesterday warned of increasing “radicalisation” among the population, days after it was announced that three anti-lockdown protesters had been arrested for setting a police car on fire in an attempt to burn an officer.
Europe is experiencing a worrying increase in the number of coronavirus cases. France yesterday reported some 19,749 new infections, a 58 per cent jump from a week ago. Gabriel Attall, a government spokesman, told reporters the “fifth wave is starting at lightning speed”.
The unrest increased debates in Germany and other European countries about the possible introduction of compulsory immunisations, with low vaccination rates prompting fears a new wave of infections could once again cripple the Continent.
As Europe endured fresh violence, in Britain, Sajid Javid, the Health Secretary, insisted no such measures were necessary, saying he hoped people can “look forward to Christmas together”.
He played down the likelihood of tougher curbs being introduced in England.
Mr Javid said the “one big difference” between Britain and parts of Europe is the UK’S jab booster programme. “It’s the most successful of Europe,” he told BBC One’s Andrew Marr Show, adding it is “absolutely key for us to keep this virus at bay”. The UK has completed 15 million booster doses, with 25 per cent of over-12s covered.
He also highlighted that the UK “made a tough decision back at the start of the summer” to open up, while “other countries didn’t follow our course”.
Despite Mr Javid’s upbeat tone, he warned that the public must “remain cautious, not complacent in any way”, describing the virus as “very unpredictable”.
He also stressed that taking up the flu vaccine was “just as important this winter” as receiving a Covid booster shot, in order to prevent the NHS from being overwhelmed.
A government source echoed his sentiments last night, telling The Daily Telegraph: “The current data show no sign of a need to change course. The most important way to minimise risk against the virus is to come forward for a booster jab when called.”
The Health Secretary vowed earlier in the day that Britain will not consider making vaccines mandatory for the general population.
In Brussels, police arrested 44 people, while three officers and one demonstrator were hospitalised after the violence. Police were forced to use bulldozers to remove blockades on city streets made from wooden pallets and set on fire.
Several of the demonstrators carried Flemish nationalist flags, while others wore Nazi-era yellow stars.
BELGIAN police yesterday fought protesters on the streets of the capital, firing water cannons and tear gas as a huge demonstration against Covid restrictions descended into violence.
Some 35,000 people marched through Brussels denouncing the introduction of a Covid passport that has barred the unvaccinated from public places, including bars and restaurants.
Officers used bulldozers to remove burning blockades set up on city streets after young, hooded men pelted police with stones and set off flares.
Police arrested 44 people yesterday while three officers were injured and one protester was taken to hospital.
“I strongly condemn the troublemakers,” said Philippe Close, mayor of Brussels, who said police had been ordered to examine video footage of the disturbances.
Several European cities saw violent protests over the weekend against new restrictions that have infuriated citizens despite soaring case numbers across the Continent.
Ministers in Austria, which goes into full lockdown today and has ordered all citizens to be vaccinated from Feb 1, have expressed fears that some protesters are becoming “radicalised” amid the restrictions.
The march in Brussels began peacefully, with adults and children singing anti-fascist songs and chanting “Freedom”. The crowd, which included both vaccinated and unvaccinated citizens, carried placards saying “Stop this nonsense”. Children waved signs declaring “I’m still a child, not an experiment”.
“All my family is vaccinated but this corona pass has gone too far,” one man who did not want to be named told The Telegraph. “They are trying to control all our movements.”
In Brussels, many Dutch-speaking Flemings marched in what is a predominantly French-speaking city. Flanders, in Belgium’s north, is one of the most immunised regions in the world, with a vaccination rate approaching 95 per cent, but is nevertheless struggling in Belgium’s fourth wave as much as the rest of the country. A doctor at a hospital in Antwerp reported earlier this month that all patients in his intensive care ward were vaccinated.
Government coalition parties have agreed to sack unvaccinated healthcare workers from early next year, triggering strike threats from hospital unions in the French-speaking south. Calls for compulsory vaccination of the entire population have until now been resisted by prime minister Alexander De Croo, who said such measures “would give the anti-vaxxers wings”.
Meanwhile, Dutch police said yesterday they had arrested 48 people after a second night of violent riots erupted over the government’s coronavirus measures. Prosecutors updated to four the number of people shot when police opened fire during an “orgy of violence” in Rotterdam on Friday night.
The two nights of unrest in a number of cities came a week after the Dutch government went into a partial lockdown over a surge in cases.
Officers invoked emergency powers to fire live bullets into the crowd in Rotterdam, as they feared for their own safety. Jan Struijs, chairman of the Dutch Police Association, said it appeared they had been aiming for protesters’ legs.
On Saturday evening, protesters also broke into stadiums where football matches were being played behind closed doors, disrupting the games.
Austria yesterday warned of increased radicalisation among its populace as up to 40,000 people flooded the streets of Vienna on Saturday in protest at the lockdown and vaccine mandate. Families demonstrated alongside neo-nazis in the Austrian capital after the far-right Austrian Freedom Party called for them to show their objection to what it described as a “stone-cold Covid dictatorship”.
The size of protest in a country with a population of less than nine million has taken authorities by surprise, laying bare a reluctance to endure another winter of business closures and curfews.
“It is apparent that, among those who are protesting, some are in the process of becoming even more radicalised,” said Karl Nehammer, Austrian interior minister, after protesters hurled bottles at police and set off smoke bombs.
Neighbouring Slovakia became the latest EU country to confirm it was considering a vaccine mandate, while also bringing in a “lockdown for the unvaccinated” for the winter.
German politicians are also debating forcing all citizens to get vaccinated, with several members of Angela Merkel’s conservative bloc yesterday pushing for the measure.
However, key figures in the Social Democratic Party, which is set to lead the next government, have said compulsory vaccinations are “constitutionally problematic”.
Meanwhile, the French government has sent riot police to quell unrest over restrictions in the overseas territory of Guadeloupe. Paris has also described the dynamic of infections at home as increasing “at lightning speed”.
A doubling of cases in the past week has led to concern that France is standing on the brink of a fifth wave of infections.