German Police Break Up Banned Coronavirus Demonstration

BERLIN: German police intervened on Saturday to break up a demonstration by opponents of coronavirus lockdown measures in the northern city of Bremen after the protest was banned by the country’s highest court.

Germany’s constitutional court upheld earlier rulings by lower courts that had already denied permission for 20,000 demonstrators to convene in the city centre of Bremen.

However, hundreds of people still gathered, some of them opponents of the government’s coronavirus measures and others part of a counter-demonstration.

Bremen police said on Twitter they were trying to keep the groups apart and break up the banned gathering, as well as urging people to wear face masks.

Last month, police unleashed water cannon and pepper spray in an effort to scatter thousands of protesters in Berlin angry about coronavirus restrictions.

Although most Germans accept the latest “lockdown light” to curb a second wave of the coronavirus, critics say the measures endanger citizens’…