London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Thursday, Oct 02, 2025

German capital BANS anti-lockdown protest, condemning ‘corona deniers & right-wing extremists’

German capital BANS anti-lockdown protest, condemning ‘corona deniers & right-wing extremists’

Belarus dictator allow protest. China allows protest. Egypt’s dictator allows protest. Germany - not. Berlin authorities have banned the upcoming protest against Covid-19 lockdown measures, saying the marches were being misused as a stage for right-wing extremists and “deniers” of the pandemic.
Organizers of the August 29 “Assembly for Freedom” in central Berlin had registered 17,000 demonstrators. The local government says police will be out in force to prevent the gathering, because participants in the previous march “deliberately broke the rules” for wearing masks and social distancing.

“We are still in the middle of a pandemic with rising infection figures,” Berlin’s interior minister Andreas Geisel told reporters on Wednesday.

“This is not a decision against freedom of assembly, but a decision in favour of infection protection,” the minister said, adding that Berlin should not be "misused as a stage for corona deniers… and right-wing extremists.”

About 20,000 people marched against the lockdown measures on August 1, including civil libertarians, constitutionalists, anti-vaccination activists and supporters of the Reichsburger movement, which some German state governments consider far-right. Some of the marchers, Geisel said, refused to wear face coverings or keep a distance of 1.5 meters, as required by police.

The minister is a member of the Social-Democratic Party (SPD), which controls the Senate – the governing body – of the German capital, which is also administered as a federal state. The opposition Alternative for Germany (AfD) party said the ban violated the rights of Berliners.

“The Senate is trampling on fundamental rights,” the party’s Berlin branch said in a statement, calling for a rally at the Brandenburg Gate.

Germany’s Robert Koch Institute has reported a rise in Covid-19 cases in recent weeks, with over 1,500 new infections over the past 24 hours, 66 of them in Berlin. The capital has had almost 11,000 cases and 225 deaths since the outbreak, while Germany as a whole has reported over 236,000 cases and more than 9,200 deaths.
Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
Trump Administration Launches “TrumpRx” Plan to Enable Direct Drug Sales at Deep Discounts
Trump Announces Intention to Impose 100 Percent Tariff on Foreign-Made Films
Altman Says GPT-5 Already Outpaces Him, Warns AI Could Automate 40% of Work
Singapore and Hong Kong Vie to Dominate Asia’s Rising Gold Trade
Trump Organization Teams with Saudi Developer on $1 Billion Trump Plaza in Jeddah
Manhattan Sees Surge in Office-to-Housing Conversions, Highest Since 2008
Switzerland and U.S. Issue Joint Assurance Against Currency Manipulation
Electronic Arts to Be Taken Private in Historic $55 Billion Buyout
Thomas Jacob Sanford Named as Suspect in Deadly Michigan Church Shooting and Arson
Russian Research Vessel 'Yantar' Tracked Mapping Europe’s Subsea Cables, Raising Security Alarms
New York Man Arrested After On-Air Confession to 2017 Parents’ Murders
U.S. Defense Chief Orders Sudden Summit of Hundreds of Generals and Admirals
Global Cruise Industry Posts Dramatic Comeback with 34.6 Million Passengers in 2024
Trump Claims FBI Planted 274 Agents at Capitol Riot, Citing Unverified Reports
India: Internet Suspended in Bareilly Amid Communal Clashes Between Muslims and Hindus
Supreme Court Extends Freeze on Nearly $5 Billion in U.S. Foreign Aid at Trump’s Request
Archaeologists Recover Statues and Temples from 2,000-Year-Old Sunken City off Alexandria
China Deploys 2,000 Workers to Spain to Build Major EV Battery Factory, Raising European Dependence
Speed Takes Over: How Drive-Through Coffee Chains Are Rewriting U.S. Coffee Culture
U.S. Demands Brussels Scrutinize Digital Rules to Prevent Bias Against American Tech
Ringo Starr Champions Enduring Beatles Legacy While Debuting Las Vegas Art Show
Private Equity’s Fundraising Surge Triggers Concern of European Market Shake-Out
Colombian President Petro Vows to Mobilize Volunteers for Gaza and Joins List of Fighters
FBI Removes Agents Who Kneeled at 2020 Protest, Citing Breach of Professional Conduct
Trump Alleges ‘Triple Sabotage’ at United Nations After Escalator and Teleprompter Failures
Shock in France: 5 Years in Prison for Former President Nicolas Sarkozy
Tokyo’s Jimbōchō Named World’s Coolest Neighbourhood for 2025
European Officials Fear Trump May Shift Blame for Ukraine War onto EU
BNP Paribas Abandons Ban on 'Controversial Weapons' Financing Amid Europe’s Defence Push
Typhoon Ragasa Leaves Trail of Destruction Across East Asia Before Making Landfall in China
The Personality Rights Challenge in India’s AI Era
Big Banks Rebuild in Hong Kong as Deal Volume Surges
Italy Considers Freezing Retirement Age at 67 to Avert Scheduled Hike
Italian City to Impose Tax on Visiting Dogs Starting in 2026
Arnault Denounces Proposed Wealth Tax as Threat to French Economy
Study Finds No Safe Level of Alcohol for Dementia Risk
Denmark Investigates Drone Incursion, Does Not Rule Out Russian Involvement
Lilly CEO Warns UK Is ‘Worst Country in Europe’ for Drug Prices, Pulls Back Investment
Nigel Farage Emerges as Central Force in British Politics with Reform UK Surge
Disney Reinstates ‘Jimmy Kimmel Live!’ after Six-Day Suspension over Charlie Kirk Comments
U.S. Prosecutors Move to Break Up Google’s Advertising Monopoly
Nvidia Pledges Up to $100 Billion Investment in OpenAI to Power Massive AI Data Center Build-Out
U.S. Signals ‘Large and Forceful’ Support for Argentina Amid Market Turmoil
Nvidia and Abu Dhabi’s TII Launch First AI-&-Robotics Lab in the Middle East
Vietnam Faces Up to $25 Billion Export Loss as U.S. Tariffs Bite
Europe Signals Stronger Support for Taiwan at Major Taipei Defence Show
Indonesia Court Upholds Military Law Amid Concerns Over Expanded Civilian Role
Larry Ellison, Michael Dell and Rupert Murdoch Join Trump-Backed Bid to Take Over TikTok
Trump and Musk Reunite Publicly for First Time Since Fallout at Kirk Memorial
Vietnam Closes 86 Million Untouched Bank Accounts Over Biometric ID Rules
×