Tight restrictions and vaccination requirements have sparked massive protests around the world. Over the weekend, police in the Netherlands opened fire on demonstrators, injuring three people.
The Netherlands became the first Western European country to impose a partial lockdown since the summer on Saturday. An emergency order had to be put in place in the city centre in Enschede and in Groningen, in the south of the country, where fires were started and police pelted with stones.
15 people were arrested in the city of Roosendaal, where demonstrators set a primary school on fire, according to local media sources. In Leeuwarden, Roosendaal, and Tilburg, police had to interfere, with a number of arrests recorded in North Limburg.
Thousands of people protested in Brussels, Belgium’s capital, protesting a move to prevent unvaccinated people from accessing restaurants and bars, as the number of cases rose to 13,836 on Sunday alone.
Reports speak of 42 people detained; two were arrested in the riots, which resulted in three police officers sustaining injuries and being taken to hospital, reported local media. One participant in the riots is said to have been hurt after a flare exploded in his hands.
Austria has also been boiling as it re-entered lockdown – the fourth since the epidemic – with vaccinations set to become mandatory in February, according to Chancellor Alexander Schallenberg‘s announcement on Friday.
Tens of thousands of people protested in the capital Vienna ahead of the lockdown, brandishing national flags and banners that read “Freedom”, with protesters shouting “Resistance!”
Comparing the current lockdown and mandatory vaccination measures with the Nazi era, some protesters had worn the yellow Jewish star as badges, with the words “unvaccinated” stitched on.
In Italy, a 3,000-strong crowd protested against the requirement of “Green Pass” certificates at workplaces, restaurants, movies, theatres, sports venues, gyms, and long-distance train, bus, or boat travel inside the nation in the capital’s Circus Maximus field, which dates from Roman times.
In Switzerland, 2,000 people protested an upcoming referendum on the government’s proposed COVID-19 restrictions law, slamming it as discriminatory, according to broadcaster SRF.
Thousands gathered in Croatia’s capital Zagreb, carrying national flags and religious symbols, along with banners against coronavirus vaccination and what they describe as “restrictions of people’s freedoms”.
In Denmark, over one thousand people are reported to have gathered outside the Danish parliament in Copenhagen to protest the reintroduction of the national health pass.
Similar protests engulfed Sweden.
Forsided, 22.11.2021
Source: Sputnik News