Yesterday, Saturday....roughly 20,000 demonstrators showed up in Kassel (a major Hessen town about two hours driving north of Frankfurt). Their topic? Anti-Covid-19 ban-rules.
I suspect that local authorities were shocked at the size of the crowd, and were expecting something a quarter this size. Weather playing a role? It was actually a pretty nice day....perhaps a bit chilly, but very sunny.
Hyped-up anger by the politicians? Yes. They felt that the police should have put the demonstration down early. Lot of folks without masks and dumping the social distance rule.
Other elements of this demonstration? Oddly enough, protesters went at public TV crews (showing the finger, yelling at them, etc). At some point, after an adult had insulted the TV crew....behind him came a 12-year old kid who also did the insult situation on the TV guys.
Will it affect the infection rate by early this week? It's anyone's guess. The rate, for the record, has been on a climbing effort for the past couple of weeks. A fair number of people were expecting cafes, bars and restaurants to open the week after Easter. My humble belief is that the numbers will not present a opening of the facilities, and public discontent will go up a notch or two.
Finally....the central-location of Kassel as a choice? There are like four autobahns that converge in the region. This is one of the few cities where you could easily drive up...park your car, and within an hour of walking....be at the center of the city. Even if they shutdown the city tram system....it's a city built for walking and easy access.
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