Twenty people were arrested in Finland on Saturday as they protesters against measures to fight COVID-19, with similar demonstrations also held in neighbouring Norway and Denmark.
About 300 people took part in the unauthorised protest in Helsinki — public gatherings of more than six people are currently banned in Finland to prevent the spread of the deadly virus.
The arrests were carried out after a police order to disperse was ignored.
Hundreds of people also gathered in the Danish capital Copenhagen on Saturday to protest their country’s strategy against the virus and the introduction of a COVID passport.
The protesters — who had rallied following a call by the “Men in Black” group — marched in a “relatively peaceful” way in the streets according to the authorities, before joining the city hall in the middle of the evening.
Denmark has been under partial containment since late December. Even if several measures have been lifted since February, the quasi-general reopening is only tabled for May 21, a date chosen because it should correspond to the end of the vaccination of people over 50.
In Norway, where the government had tightened the screw before the Easter holidays in the face of a rebound in cases attributed to the British variant, about 200 demonstrators also protested Saturday in the centre of the capital Oslo against the measures taken and burned masks.
No incidents with law enforcement were reported.
