Hundreds of protesters, inspired by Canada’s ‘Freedom Convoy’, have gathered in the country
Demonstrations against a Covid vaccine mandate are part of an “imported protest,” New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said on Monday, pointing to “Trump flags” and “Canadian flags” being waved outside the country’s parliament.
Speaking to state broadcaster TVNZ, Ardern condemned the protesters who have entered their second week of demonstrations outside the recognizable Beehive building despite police ordering them to disperse.
Hundreds of activists braved torrential rain throughout the weekend to demand the complete removal of all public health Covid measures in the country.
Ardern rejected that call, claiming it would come “at the very point where we are seeing an increase in cases and an increase in risk to the public health and wellbeing of New Zealand.”
“They want to see removed the very measures that have kept us safe, well and alive. You’ll forgive me if I take a very strong view on that suggestion,” she told a news conference late on Monday.
The protests in New Zealand follow the ‘Freedom Convoy’ truckers anti-vaccine-mandate demonstrations in Canada, which have seen drivers block traffic around Ottawa and on the bridge border crossing between Canada and the United States.
The statement from Ardern comes as the country’s High Court began hearing a case against her government filed by citizens living abroad, accusing it of unlawfully denying New Zealanders the right to return home.
Despite New Zealand only recording 18,963 confirmed cases of Covid since the start of the pandemic – one of the lowest levels in the world – the government has maintained strict border restrictions, limiting access to the nation even for its own citizens.
