Guadeloupe, Netherlands, Austria … Demonstrations against health restrictions are increasing

Tens of thousands of demonstrators in Vienna, new riots in the Netherlands, scenes of looting in Guadeloupe … Demonstrations are intensifying against the health measures decided to stem a resumption of the Covid-19 epidemic. In Europe, but not only.

In Guadeloupe, dams, looting and fires

On the island, the mobilization of opponents of the health pass and the compulsory vaccination of healthcare workers has turned violent in recent days. During the night from Friday to Saturday, when a curfew had just been established, pharmacies and telephone shops were particularly targeted by the rioters. Then in the night from Saturday to Sunday, dPolice officers and gendarmes were targeted by shots, leaving a slight injury, France Televisions learned from a police source. According to the Pointe-à-Pitre prosecutor’s office, sixteen people were arrested and five of them were taken into custody.

After this new night of looting and fires, road blockages resumed on Saturday. The General Union of Workers of Guadeloupe (UGTG), at the forefront of the protest shaking the island, called in a statement “to continue the mobilization and to strengthen the pickets”.

The government has also sent reinforcements to the island. About fifty members of the GIGN and the Raid are expected, in addition to the 200 police officers and gendarmes already on site. These reinforcements are due to arrive on Sunday, according to government spokesman Gabriel Attal, interviewed by Europe 1, CNews and The echoes.

In the Netherlands, partly reconfined, urban riots

In the aftermath of violence in Rotterdam, where 51 people were arrested and three shot wounded, protests against health restrictions turned into riot again on Saturday night in the Netherlands. In The Hague, the city where the Dutch government is based, five police officers were injured and at least seven people arrested. Violence also broke out in Urk, a small Protestant town in the center of the country, and in several towns in the province of Limburg in the south.

The Netherlands has reintroduced partial containment to deal with an outbreak of Covid-19 cases, with a series of health restrictions affecting in particular the restaurant sector, which is due to close at 8 p.m. The government is now planning to ban certain places for the unvaccinated, including bars and restaurants. In January, the Netherlands had already seen its worst riots in four decades, including in Rotterdam, after a curfew came into effect.

In Austria, a demonstration against “the corona-dictatorship”

In Austria, more than 40,000 people demonstrated in Vienna on Saturday, a stone’s throw from the former Hofburg Imperial Palace. The demonstrators denounced “the corona-dictatorship” and “fascism”, two days before the entry into force of a new confinement until December 13. The demonstration took place under close surveillance by the police, who feared the arrival of identitarians, neo-Nazi activists and hooligans.

In a Europe that has once again become the epicenter of the epidemic, Austria, where the number of cases has reached unprecedented levels since the spring of 2020, is the first country to completely confine its population again, but several others have announced a hardening of the restrictions in recent days. Austria also became the first EU country to make vaccination compulsory for the entire population, from February.

In Denmark, the return of demonstrations against the health pass

In this country, the small protest movement launched a year ago is resuming. The radical movement of “Men in Black”, which claims to be anti-system, organized its first rally, with a thousand people in Copenhagen, according to the police, 2,000 according to the organizers. The “Men in Black” protest against the return of the health pass. Denmark restored in party the “coronapas”, two months after the complete lifting of the restrictions.

At the Swedish neighbor, a small demonstration gathered 200 to 300 people in Stockholm in the afternoon, according to images uploaded by the participants. In Sweden, demonstrators denounce the introduction of a vaccination pass in meetings with fewer than 100 people.

In Australia, protests … and counter-demonstrations

In Australia too, 10,000 people marched in Sidney and several thousand in Melbourne to protest against compulsory vaccination, which is only required in certain States and Territories for certain professional categories, even though life has returned to near-normal in the country. In Melbourne, one of the first counter-demonstrations also took place, which brought together 2,000 people in support of anti-Covid measures.