BRUSSELS – A fresh wave of protests broke out in several European cities and in some French overseas territories yesterday, as protesters reacted, sometimes violently, to moves to reintroduce coronavirus restrictions.
Police and protesters clashed in the Belgian capital Brussels, in several Dutch cities and overnight into the wee hours of yesterday in the French Caribbean territory Guadaloupe.
There were fresh demonstrations in Austria, where the government is imposing a new lockdown and Covid-19 vaccine mandate.
In Brussels, violence broke out at a protest against anti-Covid-19 measures police said was attended by 35,000 people.
The march, in the city’s European Union and government district, largely focused on a ban on the 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.
Police told the Belga news agency that three officers were injured.
Several of the demonstrators caught up in the clash wore hoods and carried Flemish nationalist flags, while others wore Nazi-era yellow stars.
Protesters set fire to wood pallets, and social media images showed them attacking police vans with street signs.
Protests also erupted in several Dutch cities yesterday, the third night of unrest over the government’s coronavirus restrictions.
Demonstrators set off fireworks and vandalised property in the northern cities of Groningen and Leeuwarden, as well as in Enschede to the east and Tilburg to the south, said police.
“Riot police are present in the centre to restore order,” a Groningen police spokeswoman said.
Authorities issued an emergency order in Enschede, near the German border, ordering people to stay off the streets, police said on Twitter.
A football match in the nearby city of Leeuwarden was briefly disrupted after supporters, who are barred from games because of the Covid-19 restrictions, threw fireworks into the ground, Dutch media reported.
On Friday night, there was unrest in Rotterdam and last night in The Hague.
So far, more than 100 people have been arrested around the country and at least 12 people have been injured during the demonstrations.
And in Austria, around 6,000 people gathered in the city of Linz in a protest organised by a new political party, a day after 40,000 marched in Vienna over the partial lockdown.
From today, 8.9 million Austrians will not be allowed to leave home except to go to work, shop for essentials and exercise. Vaccination against Covid-19 in the Alpine nation will be mandatory from February 1 next year. – AFP, November 22, 2021
