'Lateral Thinking' pandemic sceptics rally in Berlin

Several thousand demonstrators with the Lateral Thinking movement in Germany, which staged rallies during the coronavirus pandemic against emergency restrictions and vaccine rules, marched through Berlin on Saturday.

Some participants waved banners demanding a "reappraisal" of the government measures imposed in hopes of controlling the spread of the virus, as well as "consequences for those responsible."

Others waived flags emblazoned with the dove symbol of peace and denounced the current German government's push to rebuild the country's armed forces.

Many decried German Chancellor Olaf Scholz's centre-left coalition government and some carried placards for the fringe political party The Basis, which is seen as tied to the Lateral Thinking movement.

Demonstrators marched through the centre of the German capital on Saturday afternoon.

A police spokeswoman said the demonstration went peacefully, although police officers noted several violations of an order not to display any posters related to the political magazine Compact, which was recently banned as a right-wing extremist outlet by German authorities.

A preliminary police estimate put the crowd at the demonstration at around 9,000 people.

A total of 500 police officers were deployed to monitor the demonstration, as well as several planned counter-demonstrations.

The Lateral Thinking, or Querdenken, movement formed across Germany during the coronavirus pandemic, with supporters repeatedly demonstrating against the measures to contain the virus.

In August 2020, an estimated 20,000 people joined a demonstration against the coronavirus measures in Berlin, although organizers claimed that the actual crowd was much larger.