Police hundreds of protesters against Covid-19 closing in Hungary, Austria and Belgium distribute or detained continuing kwarantynregimes in Europe is tilted against the economic and social toll of nearly a year’s restrictions on business, travel and community life.
Police in Brussels on Sunday said they had arrested numerous people in an attempt to prevent two banned protests against measures to curb the spread of the coronavirus. “We are currently arrested more than 200”, especially around the train stations in the Belgian capital, a police spokesperson said on Monday afternoon.
Police evacuated a square in front of the main station, where some of the protesters football fans of Belgian clubs. Dozens of people, responding to calls on social media, have also started gathering at the Atomium beacon in Brussels.
“We remind you that there is no authority to come and protest this Sunday,” Brussels police said in a tweet. ‘The people who are still planning to protest in Brussels today will be approached, discouraged from staying and if necessary [detained], ”Said it.
Belgium recorded one of the highest death rates in the world during the coronavirus pandemic, but restrictions that have closed bars and restaurants since October, as well as a night clock, have reduced infection and hospital cases over the past two months.
The country last week banned non-important travel within and outside the country until March 1.
Belgium’s neighbor, the Netherlands, was shocked last week by riots against the curfew. But protesters took another stamp in Apeldoorn on Sunday under the call to ‘drink coffee together’.
About 400 people dispersed peacefully in the center of Holland after gathering for an authorized demonstration in a community center.
In Amsterdam, a heavy police presence thwarted a largely peaceful but unauthorized demonstration.
About 5,000 people defied a ban on marching in Vienna in protest of a curfew rule and locked up to restrict the distribution of new Covid-19 variants.
The march was organized by the far-right FPO party, and many participants ignored the government regulations on wearing masks and the need to keep the minimum distance from each other.
Post-Nazi militants and thugs were reportedly among the crowd, which refused to disband and blocked traffic when it began marching to the national parliament. The police intervened and detained some protesters.
Police also distributed protesters during a demonstration Sunday in Budapest where workers in the country’s struggling hospitality sector have demanded civil disobedience and a reconsideration of the restrictions on lockdown.
The organizers of the protest in a central square in the capital of Hungary have called on restaurateurs to break pandemic rules by opening their businesses to customers on Monday, in defiance of strict pandemic measures that ban restaurants and cafes restrict.
“Every tool we have used so far has been exhausted, and now every business must open in the spirit of civil disobedience,” said protest organizer Aron Ecsenyi.
The protest comes in conjunction with increasing calls for government action from the Hungarian hospitality sector as the country’s exclusion, which began on November 11, approaches the three-month mark. The Hungarian government has insisted that only the mass vaccination of the population can put an end to the closure.
Restrictions on pandemic were extended until March 1, with many business owners complaining that they received little or no of the government’s promised financial assistance, while other businesses such as shopping malls and shops were allowed to remain open.
Polish police said they raided discos in the cities of Wrocław and Rybnik on Saturday, which opened in violation of coronavirus restrictions, using stun grenades and tear gas to clear the dance floor.
Nearly 150 officers have been deployed at the Face 2 Face Club in Rybnik, local police said Sunday. Two officers were injured, and police arrested three men and checked the identity documents of 213 others.
Similar operations, which require less force, were held in the southwestern city of Wrocław, police said.
As elsewhere, restrictions were imposed on dance and sports clubs, hotels, restaurants and ski resorts in Poland, and some venues decided to open despite the risk of heavy fines.
Poland has recorded more than 37,000 Covid-19 deaths from more than 1.5 million cases among a population of 38 million people.