Berlin (dpa) – In numerous cities around Germany, people have again demonstrated against the government’s anti-coronavirus policy.

In Lübeck, more than 1,000 participants marched through the northern city on Monday evening, as well as in the western city of Cologne. In Gummersbach, about 50 kilometres east of Cologne, about 1,800 people protested against compulsory vaccination.

In the north-eastern state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, police initially spoke of a total of about 8,000 demonstrators in various cities, with further gatherings yet to begin.

In Potsdam just outside Berlin, the police had banned a gathering of coronavirus policy critics in advance, but hundreds of people demonstrated in the city centre on Monday evening.

There were also demonstrations in several places in Berlin.

According to the police, there were no major disturbances or clashes.

Protests against social restrictions and vaccine rules have taken place regularly on Mondays for the past several weeks. Germany has toughened its stance against the unvaccinated, shutting them out restaurants, non-essential businesses and other places.

In the western cities of Koblenz and Mainz, police also reported gatherings against the coronavirus policy.

In Fulda in the western state of Hesse, according to police, up to 1,000 people were on the streets unannounced, and also in Wangen in Bavaria’s Allgäu region about 1,000 people gathered, while there were hundreds of protesters in Balingen between Freiburg and Stuttgart in the south-western state of Baden-Württemberg.

In the eastern state of Saxony, demonstrations against the coronavirus policy took place in Dresden, Zwickau, Görlitz, Chemnitz and Freiberg, among other places. In Freiberg, according to initial estimates, about 700 people gathered, who repeatedly evaded the police, according to a police spokesperson. There was a noticeable increase in the potential for violence.

Here and there, counter-protests were formed, for example in the eastern city of Leipzig, where about 300 people gathered at the square usually used by the opponents of the anti-coronavirus measures.