Anti-vaxxers rebel against restrictions, mandates in Europe

With cries of “freedom” and “resistance,” Europe’s unvaccinated are in open rebellion, taking to the streets against a host of new mandates and restrictions as the continent’s coronavirus cases soar. Their anger comes as their world is shrinking. Branded with a proverbial Scarlet “A,” the anti-vaxxers of Europe are finding themselves ostracized from public life far more than are their American counterparts.

Many are not taking it sitting down. The European Union is no stranger to protests against coronavirus measures. But the weekend saw a convergence of large, sometimes violent, demonstrations in multiple countries. In what the mayor of Rotterdam decried as an “orgy of violence” Friday, Dutch police opened fire and arrested scores of rioters who set fires and lobbed stones at officers amid a new partial lockdown and proposed law that would ban the unvaccinated from entering businesses, even with a negative coronavirus test. Thousands also marched against mandates or restrictions in Belgium, Croatia, Italy, Northern Ireland and Switzerland.

In Vienna, where the unvaccinated face the prospect of extended lockdowns and a revolutionary decree compelling them to take their jabs whether they like it or not, an estimated 40,000 demonstrators took to the streets Saturday, some of them clashing with police as night fell.

The simmering discontent was not confined to Europe. In Australia, thousands turned out against pandemic legislation in “freedom” marches in Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, Perth and Adelaide. France deployed special police forces to its overseas territory of Guadeloupe after days of unrest in which protesters set fire to cars and blocked roads in opposition to French vaccine and health pass mandates.

The outburst of anger — particularly in Europe, a place American liberals often look to as a beacon of progressive values — on climate, social benefits and health care — illustrates just how hard it may be for rich nations, flush with vaccines, to overcome vaccine hesitancy and push closer to near-total coverage rates.