Shed your sense of powerlessness, take to the street!” a man calls from a megaphone, his cry echoed by hundreds of demonstrators walking alongside him who repeat the chant. “Germany’s going to the dogs, wake up from your sleep!”
Carrying banners and posters, some with strings of Christmas lights draped around their necks, banging drums, others holding blank pieces of paper out of sympathy with Chinese protesters banned from objecting to coronavirus lockdowns, the participants make their fears and anger known during a one-hour procession through the snow-sprinkled streets of the eastern German city of Halle.
Their main concerns are soaring energy costs – they urge the government to repair and reopen the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline to Russia – inflation, which is at its highest level for 70 years, and the war in Ukraine, to which they believe Germany should not be contributing weapons.
