As several countries continue with lockdown restrictions amidst the coronavirus pandemic, strong public opposition has risen against these measures. In Europe and the UK, several protests have erupted against government-mandated restrictions, with some even turning violent. Government restrictions have also been legally challenged.
Germany
The “Querdenken (Anticonformist)” movement that opposes social restrictions recently held a protest march to Stuttgart. Both left and right-wing groups supported the protest. ‘End the Dictatorship of Covid,’ said some banners. One protesters stated that she did not believe the official data on coronavirus infections and related deaths.
German-American lawyer Dr. Reiner Fullmich’s Corona Committee is gathering testimonies from almost 100 well-known scientists, psychologists, lawyers, physicians, and economists. He plans to use the material for a major class-action suit against the country’s medical and political establishment for implementing extremely restrictive coronavirus measures.
Finland
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A government attempt to strengthen lockdown policies was overruled by the Parliamentary Constitutional Law Committee which stated that the proposal to ban movement was “completely disproportional.” PM Sanna Martin had suggested imposing a partial lockdown in areas that had high coronavirus infection levels. Former PM Antii Rinne, chair of the committee, noted that the lockdowns went against “the meaning of the constitution.”
Romania
Compared with other European nations, Romania’s restrictions are fairly moderate. Even so, anti-restriction protesters attacked policemen in the capital on March 30. The unrest was due to a recently installed curfew aimed at curbing the spread of the CCP Virus. Around 200 demonstrators were arrested and at least 12 policemen are known to be injured. In the town of Bacau, a group of protesters occupied a hospital forecourt, calling nurses and doctors “assassins.”
Slovenia
In Slovenia, hundreds of people gathered in front of the Presidential Palace, speaking out against their third lockdown restrictions, effective April 1 until April 11. Many called the restrictions bizarre and irrational. The protesters demanded the Constitutional Court to review requests regarding the restrictions.
Belgium
A court in Brussels has ordered the government to revoke all coronavirus restrictions within 30 days. The decision was taken as part of a lawsuit filed by the League for Human Rights which challenged the government’s use of a Ministerial Decree without getting any input from the parliament. The court observed that the restrictions were imposed without a proper legal basis.
Health worries
Many lockdown protesters are also concerned about the negative impact restrictions have on general health. Kristen Nagle, a nurse from London, explained that the human immune system is designed to always be in contact with the environment and record new pathogens.
She worries that a year of hand-washing, isolation, masking, and social distancing will result in an underworked immune system. Under such conditions, the first post pandemic flu could be worse than ever before. One study on the effects of lockdown on humans also found that their decision-making abilities were impaired.
“Very difficult choices were made without taking into account the social cost involved. They only took into account a single, short-term perspective. And now we know that four out of ten people were at risk of suffering mental health-related illnesses as a result of the shock produced by this pandemic. All this will have implications in the medium term,” researcher Francisco Lupianez said in a statement.
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