Charles Eichacker | BDN

Protesters lined Capitol Avenue in Augusta on Saturday for one more rally in opposition to Gov. Janet Mills’ coronavirus-related enterprise restrictions.

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AUGUSTA, Maine — Former governor Paul LePage briefly returned to Blaine Home on Saturday for a protest of the enterprise restrictions that its present occupant, Gov. Janet Mills, has put in place to stop the unfold of the coronavirus.

LePage didn’t even seem to depart the car — with its Florida plates — that he drove to the rally.

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As a substitute, in what could have been a technique to keep away from violating Maine’s requirement that out-of-state guests stay in quarantine for 2 weeks after arriving right here, he parked the Lexus sedan in a small lot subsequent to the Blaine Home and used his mobile phone to handle a gathering of protesters about 40 toes away.

Then, he pulled out of the lot and appeared to drive off down Chamberlain Avenue.

Charles Eichacker | BDN

Former Maine governor Paul LePage stopped by a protest in Augusta in opposition to Gov. Janet Mills’ coronavirus-related enterprise restrictions on Saturday, however stayed in his automotive and addressed the protesters by telephone.

A boss of the Kennebunkport Republican Committee, Jerry Collins, said on Facebook last week that LePage had simply returned to Maine from his winter residence in Florida and was planning to remain in his automotive throughout the rally as a technique to get across the quarantine guidelines.

Throughout his remarks, LePage known as the state’s 14-day quarantine “unconstitutional” and stated that another states together with Wisconsin and Georgia have proven the best way to safely reopen their economies.

Polls have proven that state restrictions to stop the unfold of coronavirus have help each in Maine and nationally, however they’ve acquired pushback from the state’s hospitality trade.

Greater than 500 individuals got here to the rally in Augusta, lots of them carrying handwritten banners decrying Mills and calling for companies or church buildings to reopen. A gentle stream of enormous and small autos continued to drive up and down Capitol Avenue, blaring their horns to create a generally deafening roar.

Robert F. Bukaty | AP

Protesters rally in opposition to the manager orders by Maine Gov. Janet Mills maintain a few of Maine companies closed to assist stop the unfold of coronavirus, Saturday, Could 16, 2020, in Augusta, Maine.

It was not clear whether or not anybody was within the Blaine Home throughout the occasion, though not less than one Maine State Police cruiser was parked in its driveway. A member of the Capitol Police stated he didn’t have a dependable estimate of how many individuals got here to the occasion.

Throughout his transient remarks, LePage additionally criticized the truth that Mills, a Democrat who was the state’s lawyer common earlier than she succeeded him as governor, has known as for a quarantine now when the 2 disagreed in regards to the dealing with of a 2014 case through which a nurse who had been treating Ebola sufferers in Sierra Leone returned to her residence in Fort Kent with no signs of the virus.

After the state filed a brief petition to require Kaci Hickox to keep away from public locations and undergo common well being monitoring, a judge ruled that the state did not show limiting Hickox’s actions was essential to guard others from the hazard of an infection — a ruling that Mills praised on the time for being “primarily based on medical science.”

Charles Eichacker | BDN

Former Maine governor Paul LePage stopped by a protest in Augusta in opposition to Gov. Janet Mills’ coronavirus-related enterprise restrictions on Saturday, however stayed in his automotive and addressed the protesters by telephone.

As governor, Mills is beginning to loosen among the enterprise restrictions that had been meant to maintain Mainers and out-of-staters from unknowingly spreading the coronavirus. Retailers in 12 of Maine’s 16 counties are allowed to open, and eating places in those self same counties can be allowed to renew providing dine-in providers on Monday in the event that they comply with sure well being restrictions, Mills announced earlier in May,

This previous Thursday, her administration announced that hotels and different lodging institutions might begin accepting reservations for June 1 to residents and out-of-state vacationers who accomplished the required quarantine.

At the very least one current nationwide ballot has proven {that a} majority of People disapprove of protests in opposition to the restrictions meant to stop the unfold of the coronavirus, with Democrats extra possible than Republicans to disapprove of these demonstrations, according to the Associated Press.

However Maine’s hospitality trade and a few Republicans have criticized the present quarantine necessities, saying they may very well be disastrous for the state’s financial system.

The rally on Saturday was organized by Rep. John DeVeau, a Caribou Republican, based on its Facebook page, and was held concurrently an analogous one going down in Bangor. There have been not less than three different similar demonstrations outside the Blaine Home in current weeks.

Watch: Janet Mills declares partnership to triple testing capability

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