LJUBLJANA, Nov 6, 2020 (BSS/AFP) – A protest against Slovenia’s coronavirus
shutdown sparked some of the most violent scenes the country has seen in
years, as police moved in with teargas and water cannons to disperse the
crowd.
The rally in the capital Ljubljana, organised by activists calling
themselves the Slovenian branch of cyber group Anonymous, started late in the
afternoon and led to several injuries and arrests as the protesters clashed
with police.
Several hundred people gathered in front of the Slovenian parliament
building, with some attacking police officers who warned them that public
gatherings were banned due to the coronavirus shutdown.
The demonstrators threw bottles, firecrackers, stones and smoke bombs at
anti-riot police who responded with tear gas, pepper spray and water cannon.
During the clashes and skirmishes that continued in parts of central
Ljubljana for more than two hours, a photographer was also injured, according
to an AFP journalist at the scene.
Private POP TV reported at least three people had been injured while
Ljubljana’s police chief Stanislav Vrecar told reporters that “around ten
police officers” had been lightly wounded, mostly by stones hurled at them.
“At 7:00 pm police restored peace and order in Ljubljana,” Vrecar said,
adding that ten protesters had been detained during the operation.
Interior Minister Ales Hojs told public TV that football hooligans had been
among the crowd.
While Slovenia was relatively unscathed by the first wave of the
coronavirus pandemic earlier this year, last month the government ordered a
second shutdown to try to halt a surge in infections which has seen the total
number of cases pass 41,000 in the country of two million.
The measures include a curfew, restrictions on travel and the closure of
schools and non-essential shops.
Thursday’s protest was the most violent in Slovenia since a series of
demonstrations in Ljubljana and Slovenia’s second city Maribor in 2012-2013
against local and state authorities, who the protesters blamed for an
economic crisis in the tiny eurozone state.