German police and journalists say Covid demos taking their toll

Berlin (dpa) – Repeated demonstrations against coronavirus restrictions in Germany are taking their toll on police officers’ mental health, a union warned on Wednesday, while journalists decried the risk of physical attacks at such events.

“The many coronavirus protests are putting a huge strain on our forces,” Oliver Malchow, head of the police union GdP, said in comments published by the RND media group.

Police on duty will go from one deployment to the next, often even in the next German state over.

Because the protest marches involve increasingly violent encounters with high levels of aggression against police officers, the deployments are extremely stressful, Malchow said.

“The leaders are working hard to reduce stress on their staff but it is becoming increasingly difficult,” he said.

Malchow had already said in an interview a day earlier that the frequent demonstrations were causing police to neglect other work, for example traffic monitoring.

Manuel Ostermann, the deputy chairman of the DPoIG police union, cited staff shortages as a result of cuts as the main reason for the problems in comments published by tabloid Bild on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, the DJU union for journalists demanded greater protection from the state in light of increasingly frequent attacks on reporters covering the demonstrations.

In comments published by the RND, DJU federal director Monique Hofmann urged the Interior Ministry to make good on commitments made by Germany’s new centre-left coalition government to strengthen the protection of journalists.

She called for “talks and agreements between police forces, [state] interior ministries and journalists’ associations on protection concepts, in which the federal Interior Ministry should take on a leading and coordinating role.”

This should happen despite such powers typically being devolved to the states, in order to show “that the problem has been recognized and is taken seriously,” Hofmann said.

The media representative said officers could receive training on dealing with members of the press and press freedoms. Journalists could also receive training on how to deal with threats and attacks.

Tens of thousands of people in German cities have taken to the streets in recent days to protest coronavirus measures, particularly in the country’s east.

The city of Munich has explicitly banned unregistered coronavirus “walks” for this Wednesday and Thursday after previous instances of such gatherings developing into protests.

Authorities said the aim of the ban is to prevent demonstrations forming where protesters, some of whom are prepared to use violence, are not wearing face masks or maintaining minimum distances from each other.

Participants in unauthorized coronavirus demonstrations face fines of up to 3,000 euros (3,390 dollars).