BERLIN, April 9 (UPI) -- Thousands of German anti-war activists have used the Easter weekend to protest U.S. and German military plans.
The peace demonstrations have been ongoing since Friday, and continued on Monday, German online daily Netzeitung reported. Good Friday and Easter Monday are federal holidays in most of Europe's countries.
In Ansbach, Bavaria, some 300 people demonstrated against the expansion of a local U.S. military base. The demonstrators called on the city council not to agree to U.S. plans to turn Ansbach into Europe's biggest base for U.S. military helicopters.
Thousands of people gathered in Fretzdorf, a small town in the eastern German state of Brandenburg, to protest German military plans to use a former Soviet military base in the area as a low-flying training center.
Brandenburg's state premier, Matthias Platzeck, and several other politicians joined the protestors, who fear that the plan to build one of Europe's largest low-flying training bases with an estimated 1,700 training missions per year will deter investors.
