- Title: G7-SUMMIT/PROTEST STARTS Thousands march to protest against upcoming G7 summit
- Date: 6th June 2015
- Summary: GARMISCH-PARTENKIRCHEN, GERMANY (JUNE 6, 2015) (REUTERS) ***WARNING CONTAINS PROFANITY*** PROTESTERS CARRYING FLAGS AND BANNERS GATHERED READY FOR MARCH POLICE STANDING OPPOSITE PROTESTERS POLICE FACING PROTESTERS AT HEAD OF MARCH WAITING TO START (SOUNDBITE) (English) SPOKESMAN FOR "STOP G7 ELMAU", SIMON ERNST, SAYING: "Well this is about the restrictive policy of police
- Embargoed: 21st June 2015 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: Germany
- Country: Germany
- Topics: General
- Reuters ID: LVA34VJGZIY6FMHKAV92KFJHT0QB
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: EDITORS PLEASE NOTE: EDIT CONTAINS PROFANE LANGUAGE IN SHOT 7
Thousands of demonstrators marched in the German resort town of Garmisch-Partenkirchen on Saturday (June 6) to protest against a meeting of leaders from the Group of Seven (G7) industrial nations that starts on Sunday (June 7) at a nearby luxury hotel.
Carrying banners with anti-G7 and anti-capitalist slogans, the protesters converged near the railway station in the picturesque sun-drenched town at the foot of Germany's highest mountain, the Zugspitze.
Police estimated the crowd at 3,600 while organisers put it at up to 5,000. Demonstrators jeered the police, who outnumbered them massively, but there was no violence.
"This is about the restrictive policy of police and also of the politicians because they don't want people to march because they cover their faces. But they are filming everything - they will not understand why people want to cover their faces," spokesman from umbrella protest group Stop G7 Elmau, Simon Ernst, said.
Some 17,000 German police have been deployed around the summit site in the Bavarian Alps and another 2,000 Austrian police were on standby across the nearby border.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel will welcome the leaders of Britain, Canada, France, Italy, Japan, the United States and the European Union on Sunday at a meeting expected to focus on issues like climate change, the fight against pandemics, Middle East turmoil and an upsurge of violence in Ukraine.
They are also due to discuss the world economic recovery and officials said Greece's unresolved debt standoff with its IMF and euro zone creditors, which is weighing on financial markets, would figure on the sidelines.
This will be the second summit of industrial nations to exclude Russia, frozen out of the G8 following its annexation of Ukraine's Crimea region last year.
Merkel spoke to Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko before the G7 summit and they called for all sides to respect a ceasefire in eastern Ukraine after the latest flare-up blamed by European observers on Russian-backed separatists, a German government spokeswoman said. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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