Stralsund (dpa/mv) - In Stralsund, many people demonstrated again on Wednesday evening against the high energy prices and demanded cost reductions from politicians. There were also calls for an end to sanctions against Russia and the opening of the Nord Stream 2 natural gas pipeline. The police estimated the number of participants at the beginning of the event to be around 2,000. But more and more people came as the evening progressed. According to the police, only 400 participants were counted in the protests on Monday in Stralsund.
The call for the demonstration on Wednesday attracted national attention after the mayor of Stralsund, Alexander Badrow, advertised it. The CDU politician shared the call by the Citizens for Stralsund group on his Facebook page and was also one of the demonstrators on Wednesday.
According to the Schwerin Ministry of the Interior, it is checking whether the mayor of Stralsund may have violated his duty of neutrality with the Facebook entry. This also applies to municipal electoral officials. A result is not yet available.
A spokesman for the CDU Stralsund had pointed out that it was a privately run site of Badrow. He shared the call for demonstrations as Stralsund CDU chairman or as a private person.
However, the e-mail address "oberbuergermeister@stralsund.de" was listed on this Facebook page in the past. According to media reports, the site recently also prominently referred to Badrow's function as Lord Mayor with a corresponding lettering in the header of the profile.
In the call, the initiators called for relief for taxpayers and warned of the threat to the existence of workers and small and medium-sized businesses. They also called for the "immediate resignation of the government in Berlin".
According to the Interior Ministry, around 12,700 people took part in the 24 demonstrations registered nationwide on Monday. That was about twice as many as a week earlier. According to the police, all demos were peaceful.
