A demonstration against lockdown restrictions (DK) has finally come to Denmark. On Saturday, several hundred people gathered in front of Copenhagen City Hall to protest the loss of their constitutional rights without a reasonable justification on healthcare grounds. Some four hundred people had signed up for the event on Facebook labelled “#TogetherforFreedom.” They listened to rock music and brandished posters with slogans such as “COVID-19 is not at all dangerous.” “The public has not at any time seen documentation that this is an extraordinary crisis situation,” said the arrangers’ statement.

Government secrecy

“These are political decisions, and we want to call attention to the legitimacy of being critical and asking questions,” said Marie Jensen, one of the persons behind the event. “The Health Authority has not recommended the interventions that the government has made. We don’t know what the Health Authority would have recommended, and we think that we haven’t gotten an answer to that.” Another of the arrangers is the doctor Vibeke Manniche, who in several blog posts has criticized the government’s actions as “corona hysteria” (DK).

It is clear from video recordings of the event that more than ten persons gathered close “together” at the site, and this would normally be a violation of rule on congregating. But the police did not react and issue fines, as they have done elsewhere, because the ban does not apply to political demonstrations.When asked whether the participants didn’t have an obligation to follow the government’s recommendations, such as keeping a distance of at least one meter from one another in order to prevent the spread of the virus, Jensen answered, “If it was very dangerous, then there would be prohibition against it. And as long as there isn’t a ban, we have a right to do it.”

Growing European movement

The demonstration appeared to be peaceful, with none of the guns or death threats that have cropped up in American protests. There was surprisingly little coverage of it by Danish news sources. There have been similar demonstrations in several cities in Germany recently, and some of them have turned violent. Many of the demonstrators there and in London appear to endorse the theories that the virus was created in a lab by a big pharma company and/or that it is being used in a plot to enforce compulsory vaccination. 

There were also large gatherings in Norway (DK) yesterday in defiance of that country’s limit on gatherings, but they appeared not to be protests against pandemic restrictions as much as the traditional parties on the eve of the Norway’s Constitution Day. Police reported that there were up to 1,000 students gathered at Frogner Park and that they did not have the capacity to intervene with measures to mitigate the spread of the virus. Official events celebrating Constitution Day have been cancelled or limited in scope. The epidemic is much more limited in Norway than in Denmark, where it is also low from an international perspective.

Lockdown exit too slow

The timing of the demonstration in Denmark is somewhat ironic. Denmark has never issued strict stay-at-home orders or required people to wear masks in public. It is in the midst of phase 2 of the relaxation of restrictions. Last week shopping centers reopened and the guideline on social distancing was reduced from two meters to one meter. Tomorrow restaurants, libraries and other institutions, churches and middle schools can reopen. One of the few restrictions left to protest is the one on large gatherings at events such as concerts, theaters and sporting events – with the exception of political demonstrations.