May Day demonstrations planned for German cities on Friday pose a dilemma for police as officers face conflicting advice on whether they should ask protesters to put on face masks or pull them off.

Wearing masks in shops and on public transport was made mandatory in most German states this week, as the country relaxed some of the lockdown measures introduced to curb the spread of Covid-19.

German law makes it illegal to cover your face while participating in a public gathering, such as a strike or a political demonstration, so as to prevent identification by the police.

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In Berlin, a paragraph was hastily added to right-of-assembly regulations this month to clarify that anti-mask laws should not prevent the wearing of mouth and nose coverings aimed at reducing the spread of coronavirus.

However, a spokesperson for Berlin police told the Guardian that officers would have to use their personal judgment regarding which kinds of masks were and were not unacceptable.

Police spokesperson Thilo Cablitz said: “If you cover your mouth and nose with a surgical mask or a scarf that would be fine, but if protesters also wear hoodies, baseball caps or sunglasses we would have to consider the intention behind those items and might request their removal.”

About 5,000 officers policing the protest would be equipped with high-protection face masks, gloves and disinfectant spray, he added.

Leftwing activists in Germany announced earlier this week they would go ahead with a non-conventional take on traditional May Day protests in spite of an ongoing ban on public gatherings of more than two people, which is not due to be relaxed until next week.

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In a plan for Friday’s demonstration put out via radical left websites, activists said they wanted to “flood the streets with anti-racist, anti-patriarchal and anti-capitalist content” through a decentralised march that would temporarily convene at locations in Berlin’s Kreuzberg district, announced via social media.

The callout said: “Stick to the minimum distance and cover up your faces with scarves and masks, and keep moving.”

The radical left network Interventionist Left advised protesters to wear “unsuspicious jogging clothes” and join queues outside corner stores holding placards or banners “cut to the relevant size to mark safety distances”.

The first day of May, which marks the achievements of labour movements in several countries across the globe, has in Berlin been the scene of regular clashes between far-left and anarchist protesters and police since the 1980s. While the number of violent incidents have broadly decreased over the last 10 years, last year’s May Day demonstrations in Berlin nonetheless resulted in 50 arrests and 39 injured police officers.

Earlier this month, Germany’s constitutional court ruled that citizens have the right to hold political protests even while the country’s “contact ban” is in place, as long as they adhere to distancing rules.

In Berlin, political protests with a maximum number of 20 people are allowed to go ahead as long as they have been registered with authorities and given the green light by the local health authority.

Last Thursday, for example, 17 people gathered outside the Brandenburg to protest against Germany’s asylum policy and conditions at Greece’s Moria refugee camp, with each protester having marked their physically distanced spot on the square with spray paint.

Thirty separate protests have registered for Friday, with their applications currently being assessed by the health authorities.

Berlin’s senator for the interior, Andreas Geisel, said on Monday: “When it comes to the first of May, protecting the public from infections will be a priority.”

“I don’t want the gatherings on 1 May to become Berlin’s Ischgl”, the Social Democrat party politician added, referencing the Austrian skiing resort seen as a focal point for the spread of coronavirus around central Europe.