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Summit meeting: Protest against G7: demonstrators are allowed near the castle

Summit meeting: Protest against G7: demonstrators are allowed near the castle

The protest against the G7 meeting in Elmau continues. Although interest in the demos remained manageable over the weekend, the G7 opponents are planning further actions.

Opponents of the G7 summit in Elmau, Upper Bavaria, want to continue their protest against the meeting of top politicians.

A star march (from 10.00 a.m.) on several routes to the conference venue at Schloss Elmau is planned. Ultimately, however, only some of the demonstrators will even come close to the castle.

It is planned that a 50-strong police delegation will be brought in buses within sight of the summit site in order to be able to hold a rally there. The remaining participants will have to end their protest marches further away from the castle.

Already at the weekend, several thousand people demonstrated in Garmisch-Partenkirchen and in Munich on the occasion of the G7 summit. However, there were far fewer participants than at similar rallies seven years ago, when a G7 meeting had already taken place in Elmau. The demonstrations were accompanied by a massive police presence in both cities, and there were a few arrests.

The protest is directed against the meeting of the heads of state and government of seven leading industrial nations that started on Sunday. Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) had invited his colleagues to the luxury hotel Schloss Elmau, just a few kilometers from Garmisch-Partenkirchen, until Tuesday. One of the central themes of the rallies was the demand that the industrialized countries must do more to combat the climate crisis. The war in Ukraine also played a role in the demos.

“Bike and hiking tours” in the alpine idyll

Several groups of demonstrators set off on various cycling and hiking tours around Garmisch-Partenkirchen for the G7 summit. The few activists were accompanied in blazing sunshine by a large police force.

According to dpa estimates, around 100 demonstrators started on Monday in Garmisch-Partenkirchen together with several police cars and dozens of police officers on foot or by bike. There are strict conditions for the several-hour “star march”, the paths must not be left, dogs must be leashed. Pyrotechnics are also forbidden, “we don’t want to cause a forest fire either,” said organizer Franz Haslbeck.

Treasury blocked in Berlin

Meanwhile, climate protectors also blocked the entrance to the Federal Ministry of Finance in Berlin on the occasion of the summit. Around 40 activists have been occupying the front entrance of the building since Monday morning. The back entrance was also blocked by around 30 to 40 people. They held up signs saying something like “Global Debt = Global Crime” and “G7 You Owe, You Pay: Cancel the Debt” and “G7 you owe, you pay : Forgive the debt»). Some of the activists also stuck to the building. According to the police, the ministry was also daubed with paint. The police blocked off Niederkirchnerstrasse in front of the ministry in the morning.

“Like many other countries in the Global North, Germany has a historical responsibility for the climate crisis, in a way a climate debt to the rest of the world, and as one of the G7 countries it also has an enormous influence on general world politics. That’s why our protest is exactly right here,” said activist Kim Weier, according to a statement published on Monday.

Source: Stern

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