New protest, violence over Covid’s limits breaks out in Europe

                               

Brussels: On Sunday, a new wave of protests broke out in several European cities and overseas French territories, as protesters sometimes reacted violently to the move to reintroduce coronavirus restrictions.

Police and protesters clashed overnight in Brussels, the capital of Belgium, several Dutch cities, and Guadalupe in the Caribbean region of France at the beginning of Sunday.

In Austria, there was a new demonstration in which the government imposed a new blockade and mandatory Covid-19 vaccine.

In Brussels, violence broke out in protest against anti-covid measures, police said police said 35,000 people had attended.

The march in the city’s European Union and government districts focused primarily on the ban on unvaccinated from venues such as restaurants and bars.

It began peacefully, but police later fired water cannons and tear gas in response to protesters throwing projectiles, AFP photographers witnessed.

Police told Berga News Agency that three police officers were injured.

Some of the demonstrators involved in the clash wore hoods and raised the flag of the Flanders nationalists, while others wore the yellow stars of the Nazi era.

Protesters set fire to wooden pallets, and social media images showed that they were attacking police vans with street signs.

Protests broke out in several Dutch cities on Sunday, the third night of anxiety over the government’s coronavirus regulations.

According to police, demonstrators launched fireworks and destroyed property in cities in the north of Froningen and Leeuwarden, and in Enschede in the east and Tilburg in the south.

“The riot police are in the center to restore order,” a Groningen police spokesman told AFP.

Police said on Twitter that they had issued an emergency order in Enschede near the German border, ordering people to leave the streets.

According to Dutch media, a soccer match in the nearby city of Leeuwarden was temporarily suspended after supporters, who were banned due to Covid’s restrictions, launched fireworks.

I was worried in Rotterdam on Friday night and I was worried in The Hague last night.

To date, more than 100 people have been arrested nationwide and at least 12 have been injured during the demonstration.

And in Austria, the day after 40,000 people marched in Vienna over a partial blockade, about 6,000 people gathered in Linz in a protest organized by a new political party.

Starting Monday, 8.9 million Austrians will be unable to leave home except to go to work, buy essentials and exercise. In addition, vaccination against Covid-19 in Alpine countries will be mandatory from February 1, next year.

The troops headed to Guadeloupe on Sunday after a week of anxiety about Covid’s actions. Meanwhile, Prime Minister Jean Castex will meet in Paris with officials on the Caribbean island of France.

Roads remained blocked after police arrested 38 people and injured two security forces after protesters against the curfew plundered shops and pharmacies and set them on fire on Sunday.

The curfew from dusk to dawn will continue until Tuesday.

Guadeloupe said protesters fired at security forces and firefighters.

Vaccination levels against Covid are lower than on the mainland in some of France’s overseas territories, but the government warned on Sunday that there are signs of fear of increased infection even there.

“The fifth wave begins at the speed of lightning,” government spokesman Gabriel Attal told the media.

Europe is fighting another wave of infection, especially in the western part of the continent, where some countries are tightening regulations despite high levels of vaccination.