Police braced for demonstrations as G20 leaders meet in Hamburg
Print Edition
HAMBURG police are bracing themselves for a major protest by anti-globalization activists as Germany’s second-biggest city started welcoming leaders of the leading Group of 20 industrial and developing economies.
The northern port city is boosting its police force with reinforcements from around the country for the summit, which takes place today and tomorrow, and has 20,000 officers on hand to patrol the city’s streets, skies and waterways.
Ahead of the summit, a demonstration was due to take place last night.
While protests so far have been largely calm, city police chief Ralf Martin Meyer told ZDF television: “We are skeptical as to whether this evening and tonight will remain peaceful.”
More than 100,000 protesters are expected in the city, with some 8,000 considered part of Europe’s violent left-wing scene, according to police.
For last night’s anti-globalization protest, organizers said they were “calling on the world to make Hamburg a focal point of the resistance against the old and new capitalist authorities.”
Overnight, 10 cars were set ablaze outside a Hamburg Porsche dealership, which police are investigating as possibly summit-related.
Many other groups are calling for peaceful protests, and are pushing the G20 leaders for action on climate change, to address economic disparities in the world and a wide array of other issues. Some are even calling for the dissolution of the G20 itself so that the United Nations becomes the platform for such discussions.
In the wake of US President Donald Trump’s recent decision to pull out of the Paris climate agreement, the fight against global warming promises to feature prominently in discussions at the summit.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel has rejected calls from some to push for a strong “G19” statement — without the US — on climate change; something that Zhu Guangyao, a Chinese deputy finance minister, told reporters that Beijing also did not support.
“The policies produced by the G20 should be by the consensus of all member states,” he said. “No one should be excluded.”
Still, “China will firmly promote its policies taking more measures against climate change,” he added.
Activists are expressing concern, however, that the draft language being worked on for the closing G20 communique apparently calls for a “global approach” on climate change, which they fear could weaken national responsibilities.
On trade, Russian President Vladimir Putin wrote in Germany’s Handelsblatt newspaper that “politically motivated” sanctions were being used as a form of protectionism.
“Limits by one-sided, politically motivated sanctions on investment, trade and particularly technology transfer are becoming its hidden form,” he wrote.
The European Union and the US have imposed sanctions on Russia over Ukraine, and Putin wrote that such sanctions lead nowhere. He said they “contradict G20 principles” of working together in the interests of all.
- About Us
- |
- Terms of Use
- |
-
RSS - |
- Privacy Policy
- |
- Contact Us
- |
- Shanghai Call Center: 962288
- |
- Tip-off hotline: 52920043
- 沪ICP证：沪ICP备05050403号-1
- |
- 互联网新闻信息服务许可证：31120180004
- |
- 网络视听许可证：0909346
- |
- 广播电视节目制作许可证：沪字第354号
- |
- 增值电信业务经营许可证：沪B2-20120012
Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.
