Hundreds gather in illegal COVID-19 protest in Stockholm

STOCKHOLM >> The Swedish police dispersed hundreds of people who gathered in central Stockholm to protest the restrictions imposed on the coronavirus by the Swedish government.

Swedish officials said Saturday’s demonstration was illegal as it was carried out without permission. The demonstration was Sweden’s first major protest against coronavirus restrictions.

Stockholm police said on their website that they decided to shorten the meeting soon after it started, when the number of participants exceeded the limits for public meetings under Swedish pandemic laws.

Video footage in the Swedish media showed a considerable group of people without masks gathered on Stockholm’s Medborgarplatsen square, not far from the Old Town. Local media estimated that 300 to 500 people attended.

Swedish tabloids Aftonbladet and Expressen reported that the demonstration was widely dispersed peacefully, but six policemen were injured after fighting broke out between the police and some protesters who did not want to leave.

Aftonbladet said the demonstration was organized by a group called Freedom Sweden, which, according to the newspaper, believes that the COVID-19 rules restrict human freedom.

At the start of the pandemic, Sweden, unlike most other European countries, chose to keep its society broadly open with few restrictions, but the government has taken a substantially tougher stance in recent months.

Sweden recorded more than 13,000 deaths in the pandemic, far more than its Nordic neighbors Denmark, Norway and Finland.