LIVE: Hamburg streets blocked off between airport and city as delegates arrive for G20
In short:
- World leaders are in Hamburg for the G20 summit on Friday and Saturday. Here’s what you should know.
- Protest events have been ongoing throughout the week leading up to the meeting.
- Police have warned that far-left demonstrators in particular could get violent.
2.31pm – We have been massively stigmatized, demo organizer claims
Andreas Blechschmidt, the organizer of the “Welcome to Hell” protest which starts at 4pm on Thursday, has claimed that the demo has been the subject of a “massive campaign” of “denunciation and stigmatization” on the part of Hamburg police.
The police have been propagating “baseless scenarios of violence pulled out of thin air,” he said.
As proof that Hamburg judicial authorities don’t consider the demo a risk, Blechschmidt pointed out that no other protest was allowed to pass as close to the venue of the summit.
Hamburg police say that they expect 8,000 potentially violent left-wing extremists at the demo.
Blechschmidt has previously stated the protesters “reserve for themselves the option of militant resistance” against police.
Pictured below, organizers prepare for the start of the demo.
2.24pm – Shakira arrives with Coldplay’s Chris Martin
The true savers of the world have arrived in Hamburg: Colombian pop star Shakira and Coldplay’s Chris Martin. The singers are set to perform at the simultaneous Global Citizen Festival in the city on Thursday.
2.17pm – Police hunt extremists who had list of official license plates: report
Hamburg police are searching for two left-wing extremists who were found with a list of car licence plates with either BKA (Federal Criminal Investigators) or SEK (Special Deployment Commando) written next to them, Spiegel reports.
The two men, aged 24 and 27, come from Berlin and were taken into custody in Hamburg on June 22nd. But a court later ordered their release.
Police have confirmed to Bild that they want to keep the men in detention until July 9th, the day after the G20 summit finishes.
The Hamburger Abendblatt reports that the route between the airport and the city centre is being blocked off between 10am and 6pm almost completely for cars as the delegates arrive for the G20. Police also warn that the U-Bahn and S-Bahn trains should be avoided during this time.
Stresemannstrasse is also partially blocked off, starting at the S-Bahn station Holstenstrasse and heading into town.
“Streets are almost completely empty, many shops are closed, and there is the constant sound of helicopters in the air. Morning Hamburg,” wrote one Twitter user.
12.04pm – Merkel to meet Trump in Hamburg’s Atlantic Hotel
Chancellor Angela Merkel is to meet with US President Donald Trump in the Hotel Atlantic in Hamburg on Thursday evening.
Transatlantic differences on climate change, trade, defence spending and refugees hang over the meeting.
Last week Merkel met with key European leaders and vowed to make a stand for climate protection and open markets at the meeting with Trump, who has said he will take the US out of the Paris climate deal and pursue a protectionist “America First” policy.
Merkel said that “the differences are obvious and it would be dishonest to try to cover that up. That I won’t do.”
She also said the US exit from the 2015 Paris climate pact had made Europe “more determined than ever” to make the accord a success.
On Monday, presenting her party’s election platform, she predicted “a whole series of thorny issues” at the G20.
“We know the positions of the US government and I do not expect them to disappear on a two-day trip to Hamburg,” the Chancellor said.
11.24am – 10 Porsches set alight
One of the burned out Porsche in Hamburg. Photo: DPA
Ten Porsches were set on fire at a luxury car dealership in the Hamburg district of Eidelstedt on Wednesday evening, with police suspecting that anti-G20 protesters were behind the arson.
“We have to assume that there was a connection between the G20 summit and the arson, but it needs to be proved first,” said Hamburg police chief Ralf Martin Meyer.
11.21am – First big protest has potential for violence
The “Welcome to Hell” protest is starting at 4pm in the St. Pauli district. Protest organizer Andreas Blechschmidt told AFP that activists would seek to blockade access to the summit venue and, as usual, “reserve for themselves the option of militant resistance” against police.
The demo’s website ominously states that “the final meeting will be held a stone’s throw from the summit’s location in the exhibition halls.”
Article source: https://www.thelocal.de/20170706/live-police-suspect-g20-opponents-behind-blaze-at-porsche-dealership