Daily Times

A call is out on Telegram for people opposing Covid restrictions to share private addresses of German “local MPs, politicians and other personalities” who they believe are “seeking to destroy” them through pandemic curbs.

Those on the list should no longer be allowed to “live a carefree life,” wrote the group called “Coronavirus-Information” in the message that was put online late November.

Since then it has been viewed by 25,000 people. On Friday evening, a group of corona-sceptics armed with flaming torches massed outside the house of Petra Koepping, the health minister of Saxony state.

The scenes in the stronghold of Germany’s far-right, accompanied by thumping drum beats, were reminiscent of Nazi-era marches, drawing condemnation from mainstream politicians.

Olaf Scholz, who is due to take office on Wednesday as Germany’s new chancellor, urged society “not to be infected” by such “aggressive” behaviour. “When such flaming torch processions take place in front of the house of a health minister, that is meant as a threat — that is not just an expression of opinion, and we as democrats strongly reject that,” he said.

Not only in Germany, but also in the Netherlands and Austria, security services have warned of growing radicalisation among coronavirus-sceptics. And the Telegram list is just one in a multitude of such examples flourishing on social networks in Germany, attracting opponents of coronavirus curbs from mask-wearing to vaccinations. The incoming German government’s recent call for compulsory vaccinations has fired up another wave of rage.

Thomas Strobl, who heads the conference of regional interior ministers, warned that mandatory jabs will only “further harden the attitudes of opponents”. Strobl also accused Internet regulators of falling short in clamping down on such threatening calls online.

But Simone Rafael of the anti-racism Amadeu Antonio foundation said that policing the online sphere was easier said than done.