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Eight arrested at anti-lockdown protest in Danish capital

Danish police said they arrested eight people in an anti-lockdown demonstration in Copenhagen late on Saturday.

Published: 28 February 2021 10:27 CET
Eight arrested at anti-lockdown protest in Danish capital
The group Men In Black demonstrates in Copenhagen, Saturday 27 February 2021. Photo: Mads Claus Rasmussen / Ritzau Scanpix

Organised by a group calling itself “Men in Black”, the rally of around 1,200 people in the Danish capital was the first since the government announced last week that it was extending many anti-coronavirus restrictions.

Police said the rally remained largely peaceful, but eight people were arrested for allegedly using fireworks and for rowdy behaviour.

Photo: Mads Claus Rasmussen/Ritzau Scanpix

Initially, around 600 people took part in the demonstration, but the crowd had swelled to around 1,200 by the end of the evening on the square in front of Copenhagen’s town hall, police said.

Photo: Mads Claus Rasmussen/Ritzau Scanpix

Photo: Mads Claus Rasmussen/Ritzau Scanpix

“Men in Black” has previously arranged demonstrations in Aalborg and Copenhagen. 

In January one of the protests in Copenhagen included the burning of an effigy of Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen, leading to the arrest of two men.

Denmark, which has been under a partial lockdown since late December, announced last Wednesday that it would ease some coronavirus restrictions but keep the majority in place despite protests from the opposition.

READ ALSO: Denmark announces easing of Covid-19 restrictions: Limited opening of schools and shops

While Danes will once again be able to visit some shops and partake in small-scale sports and communal activities from Monday, many restrictions have been extended until 5th April, including the closure of bars, restaurants, and most secondary and higher education institutions.

The number of Covid-19 infections in Denmark has fallen sharply over the past few weeks, but the rate of incidence of the so-called UK variant of the coronavirus, which is more easily transmissible, remains a source of concern, authorities said.

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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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