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PROTEST

Five arrested after anti-lockdown demo in Danish capital

Five people were arrested in Copenhagen on Saturday night after demonstrations against the country's coronavirus restrictions turned violent, resulting with a puppet of the Danish Prime Minister being set on fire, police and local media said.

Published: 24 January 2021 13:00 CET
Updated: 25 January 2021 08:58 CET
Five arrested after anti-lockdown demo in Danish capital
Demonstrators set fire to a doll representing Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen. Photo: Mads Claus Rasmussen / Ritzau Scanpix

Around 1000 people had gathered in Copenhagen, according to the Danish newspaper B.T.

Organised by a group calling itself “Men in Black”, the demonstrations targeted restrictions imposed to curb the spread of the coronavirus.

Protestors shouted “freedom for Denmark” and “we have had enough” according to DR's reporter Caroline Clante.

After a peaceful start, the protest later turned violent. In TV broadcasts and video posted to social media, police in riot gear could be seen clashing with protesters in Copenhagen.

 

The five people have been questioned and released without being brought before a judge, head of security Michael Andersen at the Copenhagen Police said on Sunday morning. Three have been charged with with violence or threats of violence against an official.

During the demonstration, a life-size doll representing Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen was hung on a lamppost on Julius Thomsens Plads by Forum in Frederiksberg.

Around the neck of the dull hung a sign saying, 'hun må og skal aflives!” – 'She must and should be killed.'

The puppet was later set on fire, which has sparked outrage among several party leaders and politicians from both wings.

Copenhagen Police said on Sunday morning that the burning of the doll is being investigated and there may be further arrests. 

“We take the matter seriously”, Lars Ole Karlsen told TV 2.

A doll representing Mette Frederiksen was hung up and set fire to. Photo: Mads Claus Rasmussen / Ritzau Scanpix

On the Facebook event for the demonstration, “Men in Black” had stressed that a peaceful demonstration was expected.

“We lack a long-term plan and strategy! We need to be presented with alternative solutions for a complete lockdown,”the group wrote on the event page.

The demonstration began at Forum Station in Frederiksberg shortly after 6 pm. After this, it continued towards the centre.

At approximately 7.15 pm, the group reached Forum Station, where they remained until the police broke up the protest at around 11pm.

“Men in Black” has previously arranged demonstrations in Aalborg and Copenhagen, which ended with riots and several arrests.

The most recent took place on January 9, when a total of 23 people were arrested and seven people were later remanded in custody.

Also on 19 December, the group arranged a demonstration in Copenhagen. Here, the participants committed extensive vandalism including repainting house walls and shop windows with graffiti.

 

ROME

Rome square filled with coffins in protest over Italy’s workplace deaths

A thousand coffins filled one of Rome's most famous squares on Tuesday as a trade union made a powerful statement on Italy's high number of deaths in accidents at work.

Published: 19 March 2024 17:01 CET
Rome square filled with coffins in protest over Italy's workplace deaths

“Every year, one thousand people go to work and don’t come home,” read a large sign displayed next to the 1,041 cardboard coffins set up around the obelisk in the centre of the Piazza del Popolo.

“Zero is still too far away,” read another sign in the square as curious tourists took snapshots.

Last year, 1,041 people died in workplace accidents in Italy.

“We brought these coffins here to raise awareness, to remind everyone of the need to act, to not forget those who have lost their lives,” Pierpaolo Bombardini, general secretary of the UIL union behind the protest told AFPTV.

The protest was also intended “to ask the government and politicians to do something concrete to prevent these homicides” he added.

“Because these are homicides. When safety rules are violated, they are not accidents, but homicides.”

Cardboard coffins fill Rome’s Piazza del Popolo on March 19th in a protest by the Italian Labor Union (UIL) intended to draw public attention to the number of deaths at work in Italy. (Photo by Tiziana FABI / AFP)

Fatal accidents in the workplace regularly make headlines in the Italian press, each time sparking a debate on risk prevention. Most recently a concrete structure collapsed on the construction site of a supermarket in Florence last month, killing five people working at the site.

Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni denounced it as “another story… of people who go out to work, who simply go out to do their job, and do not come home”.

Bombardini called for an increase in the number of inspections and inspectors.

“Companies that violate safety standards must be closed down,” he added. According to Eurostat’s most recent statistics, from 2021, on EU-wide workplace fatalities, Italy had 3.17 deaths per 100,000 workers.

That was above the European average of 2.23 per 100,000 works but behind France at 4.47 and Austria at 3.44.

The European Union’s three worst-faring countries are Lithuania, Malta and Latvia, while work-related fatalities are lowest in the Netherlands, Finland and Germany.

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