Workers’ Day: strong leftist demonstration on May 1 in Berlin brings together 14,000 people

Some 14,000 demonstrators participated according to the police in the traditional leftist demonstration of the May 1 in berlinwhich was mostly peaceful but ended with several incidents.

The number of participants in the march, convened under the motto “No to war if it is not of class”was somewhat lower than what the security forces had predicted, which had up to 20,000 protesters, which led to a police deployment of 6,000 agents, according to local media.

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After the demonstration reached its destination in the Kreuzberg district, as usual almost every year, some clashes between the police and the “black block” which gathered several hundred people.

The forces of order charged against some of the participants in this most radical sector of the march and tried to disperse them with irritant gas, according to their version after having been the object of the throwing of stones, bottles and pyrotechnic objects.

Police detain a protester during a May Day demonstration in Berlin, Germany. (REUTERS/Lisi Niesner/)

According to several journalists present at the march, several people were injured as a result of police charges and at least six were detained.

The demonstration, called by a platform that brings together anti-fascist, anarchist and leftist groups of various kinds, was just one of the twenty that toured the German capital on the occasion of May Day.

People hold banners as they take part in a May Day demonstration in Berlin, Germany. (REUTERS/Christian Mang/)

A bicycle protest calling for a better distribution of wealth drew some 4,000 participants, while several thousand gathered outside the Brandenburg Gate to attend the event of the trade union center, the DGB.

The president of the organization, Reiner Hoffmann, charged in his speech against the war in Ukraine and warned against a continued rise in defense spending by the Government.

The mayor-governor of Berlin, the Social Democrat Franziska Giffey, also participated, to whom a group of attendees threw an egg in protest at her refusal to hold a referendum on the expropriation of large real estate companies.

Police detain a protester during a May Day demonstration in Berlin, Germany. (REUTERS/Christian Mang/)

Source: Elcomercio