The preparation time for this second G-7 summit at Schloss Elmau is short. That’s what the police and authorities have been saying since the new federal government decided in autumn to hold the meeting of the heads of state and government of the seven most important industrial nations from June 26 to 28 at the same place as in 2015. But not only in Offices and praesidia have been very busy since then, but also among those who are assumed to be mostly on the other side. And just like the security authorities, the summit critics and G-7 opponents can fall back on tried-and-tested concepts from 2015.
Because if the G 7 meet again in Elmau instead of just by video conference like last Sunday, then that will open up opportunities for protests there again. But these protests could be different this year than in 2015, for example due to the Russian war in Ukraine and the ongoing climate crisis.
Susanne Egli, for example, is “relatively certain that the protests will change.” Egli is a spokeswoman for Extinction Rebellion, a group that also uses actions that go beyond mere demonstrations to clarify its demand for climate protection. Of course, there should also be demonstrations again at the summit. The largest will probably also take place this time in Munich: More than a dozen quite bourgeois organizations are expecting thousands of participants from Germany and all over Europe for a large demonstration on June 25th, according to previous planning if possible on the Theresienwiese. The globalization critics from Attac, the Bund Naturschutz, the WWF, Welthungerhilfe and the church aid organizations Misereor and Brot für die Welt, for example, called for this.
Activists call for ‘ending dependency on oil, gas and coal’
They all demand from the assembled heads of state “to draw consequences from the Russian war against Ukraine and to end dependence on oil, gas and coal. The G-7 members must finally act decisively against the climate crisis and species extinction and hunger, fight poverty and inequality”.
The alliance “Stop G 7 Elmau” can also identify with these demands and the large-scale demonstration in Munich – according to its own statements, a coalition of climate activist, capitalism-critical, feminist and anti-militarist groups. The alliance has also registered a demonstration in Garmisch-Partenkirchen for the first day of the summit and will organize a multi-day “action camp” there on a meadow by the Loisach.
There was also such a camp in 2015, but it was forbidden at the time with reference to flood protection and only approved by the administrative court. In 2015, at times more than 1,000 people stayed in tents there. The camp is registered this time for 750 participants.
18,000 police officers from all over Germany
The fact that the Stop-G-7 activists have also registered three “long-term rallies” for 2,500 participants in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Krün and the small town of Klais at the entrance to the Elmauer Valley has more strategic reasons. The activists want to be able to claim free access to these rallies if they are stopped by the police.
According to the latest indications from Bavaria’s Interior Minister Joachim Herrmann (CSU), at least 18,000 officials from all over Germany will gather again to secure the summit, the area, Munich Airport and the announced demonstrations.
The activists also announce “civil disobedience”.
In view of such a contingent and the 16-kilometer-long fence around Elmau, “we don’t have to kid ourselves that we can practice great civil disobedience right near the negotiations,” says climate activist Susanne Egli. According to its spokeswoman Lisa Pöttinger, the alliance “Stop G 7 Elmau” has agreed that “an action in the field of civil disobedience” should definitely take place. Pöttinger does not want to give any details. She might be expecting different protests around the summit, but probably no bigger protests than in 2015. In principle, one wants to get people onto the streets in a decentralized manner and all over the world anyway.
The alliance, which also includes Exctinction Rebellion and Fridays for Future, wants to focus on the demands of the Debt for Climate initiative. The activist Esteban Servat, who fled to Berlin to escape death threats from Argentina, presented them in Munich on Wednesday. Accordingly, the debts of the Global South to the G-7 countries are the common denominator of many global problems. Under the pressure, the countries of the South would have to exploit resources such as fossil fuel reserves.
For Servat, global injustice and the climate crisis are connected, which is why climate activists and trade unions have to fight against it together. The G7 would have to cancel the debt in order to enable sustainable development – and to even pay off a small part of the ecological debt that they would have accumulated through their way of doing business.