Thousands of anti-vax protesters gathered across the country in Aotearoa/New Zealand today, with some individuals attacking police and threatening Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern.
In the earlier hours of the protest on Tuesday, roughly between 2,000 and 3,000 people gathered outside New Zealand’s parliament in Wellington to protest the country’s vaccine mandates, with some protesters threatening violence.
Stuff, one of the largest news publications in NZ, reported that one of their own photographers was grabbed and pushed, while the anti-vax protesters who breached the barrier heckled journalists and told them they’ll “get what’s coming” to them.
Twitter users shared images of tennis balls that had “hang Ardern” written on them, which were apparently lobbed over parliament walls.
Anti-vaxxers have thrown balls onto Parliament saying “hang Ardern.” This is a shameful day for New Zealand. https://t.co/FA3VnDnnzV pic.twitter.com/QRzSaou5Nb
— Shaneel Lal 🧚🏻 (They/Them) (@shaneellall) November 9, 2021
Almost all the gates and entrance ways to parliament were shut off while the brigade of Trump supporting anti-vaxxers gathered outside, in scenes reminiscent of American anti-vax protests.
New Zealand security was on high alert during the demonstration, with Speaker of the House Trevor Mallard telling Stuff that it was the tightest security had been since 1984.
Meanwhile in Auckland a police officer was bitten (of all things) while intervening in a protest at the border, which has been closed for weeks due to a COVID outbreak.
“Freedom!”
Hundreds marched towards New Zealand’s Parliament in Wellington to protest #Covid19 vaccine mandates and lockdowns, holding “Trump 2020” flags and led by motorcyclists pic.twitter.com/YbDqjMiEYf
— Bloomberg Quicktake (@Quicktake) November 9, 2021
The protests were surprisingly large considering that, for the most part, the New Zealand government has had favourable responses to their COVID management. Data analysed by The Spinoff found that public sentiment towards Ardern’s hardline approach largely remained positive throughout the pandemic.
But despite the troubling turn out of both anti-vaxxers and those that identify as ‘vaccine hesitant’, the country is currently at 79% of the eligible population being fully vaccinated, with 89% having their first dose. So it seems Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern was right when she said, “What we saw today was not representative of the vast bulk of New Zealanders.”
