Hundreds protest against lockdown in two German cities

STUTTGART, Germany — Hundreds of protesters joined demonstrations in two German cities, Stuttgart and Berlin, on Saturday against the ongoing restrictions on public life to stem the spread of the coronavirus.

Organizers said several thousand people joined what they described as a “nonpartisan” weekly protest in the southwestern city of Stuttgart.

Protest initiator Michael Ballweg claimed 5,000 people demonstrated, up from a few hundred the week before.

Stuttgart police would not estimate the size of the crowd but said the gathering went off without incident and that demonstrators largely kept the required distance from one another.

Ballweg has said his “Querdenken” movement, a name which translates roughly as “lateral thinking,” is calling for the restoration of fundamental rights such as freedom of assembly and freedom of religion.

The tech professional was initially banned from holding the demonstration by the city, but Germany’s Constitutional Court overturned the ban.

Police said about 300 protesters gathered in Berlin.

City police had approved only two protests with up to 20 participants each. Fifteen minutes before the protests began, officers warned would-be demonstrators via Twitter that the area was full.

Registered outdoor gatherings are allowed in Berlin for up to 20 people. Starting Monday, this rule will be relaxed to allow groups of up to 50 people.

A few hundred demonstrators have gathered in Berlin for the past few Saturday afternoons, among them known rightwing populists and conspiracy theorists.

Meanwhile, German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier said that the discussions about the extent of the restrictions were important.

“(The discussions) create a healthy obligation for politicians to explain on a daily basis how long such measures can be justified,” Steinmeier told Sunday’s edition of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.

Though he did not believe the restrictions were a threat to German democracy, Steinmeier said in comments seen by dpa ahead of publication, society needed fundamental freedoms “like air to breathe.”

Steinmeier added that he is watching “with great respect” the attempts of politicians to strike a balance between protecting the population and providing relief from the restrictions.

The reasons the country is now experiencing fewer new daily infections are “intelligent crisis management, coupled with the responsibility and discipline of the people in Germany,” Steinmeier said.

If the restrictions were now to be lifted too quickly, “we would have won a Pyrrhic victory,” he warned.