Demonstration against vaccination escalates in Germany

Fisticuffs broke out on Wednesday during a demonstration by vaccination opponents against a vaccination campaign at a secondary school in the southern German state of Bavaria.

According to a police spokesperson, about 15 demonstrators had gathered in front of the school in the town of Koesching near Ingolstadt in the morning.

They "attacked the mobile vaccination team and there were physical confrontations," the police said.

Several patrol cars then arrived. The officers were able to calm down the situation and the vaccination campaign continued.

Late on Tuesday in Saxony's Vogtland district, unidentified assailants lobbed three Molotov cocktails at a local vaccination centre.

The flammable liquid failed to ignite, however, so they did not cause a fire or any damage.

Experts warned about the increased radicalization of so-called anti-vaxxers.

"The increasing violence from the so-called Lateral Thinking scene against public institutions and health facilities is deeply worrying," the domestic political spokesman for the liberal FDP parliamentary group, Konstantin Kuhle, told the editorial network Germany in remarks published Thursday.

He called radical opponents of vaccinations and lateral thinkers a danger to society and added that by instrumentalizing misinformation and uncertainty, they were contributing to the fact that fewer people were being vaccinated.

The Querdenken (Lateral Thinking) movement has gained traction in Germany by arguing that the government's coronavirus restrictions encroach on citizens' rights.

The domestic political spokeswoman for the Greens in the lower house of parliament in Berlin, Irene Mihalic, said that a radicalization of the scene has been observed for months.

CDU politician Mathias Middelberg urged the domestic intelligence services (BfV) to keep a close eye on the scene.