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Covid: no restrictions, rage across central-eastern Europe

Protests in Austria, Hungary and Bulgaria, discontent in Croatia

01 February, 23:21
(ANSA) - BELGRADE, 01 FEB - Anger over the anti-Covid restrictive measures is spreading more and more in France, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Belgium, and large parts of Central and Eastern Europe. Protests occurred on Sunday in Austria, Hungary, and Poland against partial lockdowns and anti-Covid measures decided by the authorities to keep the virus under control. Some thousands of demonstrators marched without authorization in Vienna's center, many of them without masks and in defiance of respecting social distancing, waving the Austrian flag and banners reading "Kurz must go", citing the Chancellor in office. Sunday's demonstration aims to counter the restrictive measures established by the government as part of the third lockdown since last spring, introduced after Christmas. The authorities have decided to close non-essential shops, theaters, sports centers, and schools to cope with infections. There was quite an "aggressive" atmosphere, the Vienna public television reported. Other media reported neo-Nazis and ultra-right members marching along with demonstrators, who refused to clear the streets by blocking traffic. "We have imposed a significant number of fines" and recorded many "violations of the anti-Covid rules", the police told the Apa news agency.

The police also made several arrests. Aiming to push people towards participation in the anti-Covid demonstration, the former Interior Minister Herbert Kickl, one of the leaders of the FPOE (right), spoke of "scandal" and "censorship" regarding the ban on protest sanctioned by the authorities. Scenes similar to those in Vienna also occurred on Sunday in Budapest, where hundreds of people took to the streets against the Orban government's anti-Covid measures. Similar protests took place in the Czech Republic and Bulgaria, where restaurant managers and restaurateurs expressed their dissent against the government's closures. In Croatia, a rally will take place in Zagreb on February 3. In the fall of 2020, violent demonstrations set up by radical anti-lockdown groups also took place in Slovenia. In July, anger again exploded in Belgrade, Serbia, after the government called for the curfew's return, sparking a new wave of anti-government protests. In December, other demonstrations of "no-mask" and "no-vax" also took place in Latvia.

The governments of the region, led by the Hungarian one, continue to defend restrictive measures and partial lockdowns, which are necessary until the curve of coronavirus infection flattens out definitively.

Furthermore, Hungary was the first state of the Union to break the EU common front, signing agreements with Beijing and Moscow to receive Sinopharm and Sputnik V vaccines. Simultaneously, Budapest accused Brussels of making the vaccines approved by the European Union available too late. But the uprising from below against the restrictions also involves Poland. Polish police intervened on Sunday in Wroclaw and Rybnik, using tear gas, in two clubs reopened in both cities by their managers in open violation of anti-Covid regulations. Tensions that occurred after mass protests raged across the country, in 51 cities, against the abortion ban, introduced by a controversial decision made by the Constitutional Court, which closed the doors to termination of pregnancy in case of fetal anomalies. The "women's strike" involved Gdansk, Szczecin, Gliwice, and dozens of other towns, where thousands of people marched accusing the government of "having their hands stained with the women's blood." (ANSA).

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