Over a thousand protesters tried to stop the G7 meeting – Swedish Dagbladet

Anti-G7 protesters in place in Garmisch-Partenkirshen to protest against Sunday’s meeting. Photo: KAI PFAFFENBACH / TT news agency

Garmisch-Partenkirchen. In brilliant sunshine and snow-capped Alpine peaks in the background was Barack Obama and Angela Merkel received in Krün located just a few kilometers from Elmau. The whole village was waiting in the square, dressed in Lederhosen, Dirndl and tassel hats. Beer flowed and Bavarian brass music was played.

– The best alphornmusiken I have ever heard, said an exhilarated Barack Obama and heaved a big glass of “Weissbier”. Too bad, he joked that he forgot his Lederhosen.

Obama then turned to the German population, and especially to Angela Merkel.

– We are grateful for your friendship, your leadership and together we are inseparable partners in the world.

It was a clear indication that Europe is Angela Merkel, who holds the strings. The crisis in Ukraine, relations with Vladimir Putin, the Greek debt crisis and the meetings with the Greek Alexis Tsipras – all this is the United States handed over to Merkel for the fifth time has been named the world’s most powerful woman by Forbes magazine.

As confirmation it was in the morning known that Merkel together with French President Francois Holland had telephone talks with Alexis Tsipras. On Wednesday they meet in Brussels to the eleventh hour attempt to stitch together a compromise, just days before Greece money and takes less than three weeks before the EU, ECB and IMF aid program expires.

At a press conference Elmau explained European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker that he had not yet seen Greece’s recent reform list, which is likely to Athens last chance to release 7.2 billion euros in emergency loans outstanding.

In Garmisch-Partenkirchen started early on Sunday morning, a so-called star march from the protest movement tent camp on the outskirts of the city. From various quarters, partly meandering alpstigar, tried demonstrators make their way to the Schloss Elmau there in the afternoon G7 leaders began their deliberations.

First clashes with the police occurred when about fifty protesters blocked one of the access roads to Elmau.

– Police beat a ring around us and dragged forcibly removed several of the protesters, says Simon Ernst from the protest movement Stop the G7.

Police later confirmed that several demonstrators arrested. Over the protest movement tent camps boomed on Sunday, police and military helicopters. At the inputs and outputs and along roads into the city center was a massive force of police outpost off.

– It is many times more police than demonstrators. Totally sick! You feel imprisoned, hissed Peter Meyer, who together with a group of peace activists were on their way to a planned demonstration at the train station.

– Democracy is the game when you do not get to express their protests and politicians hide behind barbed wire and police, interjected Andreas Wagner.

George Ismail, one of the spokesmen Stop the G7, told SvD that it had anticipated far more demonstrators, mainly from southern Europe, where austerity policy hit hard, and where resistance movements and left parties Podemos in Spain wind in its sails.

– the police strategy was perfect, therefore, in their view. To the last, it was unclear if the camp would be allowed and therefore many of example Spain or Italy who could not decide to come here, explained George Ismail.