The names say it all: “No IAA”, “No Future for IAA” or “Smash IAA” are the names of the alliances and initiatives against the Munich auto show starting on September 7th. One group even named itself after what is presumably the worst scenario that sports car enthusiasts and PS aficionados can imagine: “Sand in the gears”. The initiative announces: “We will disrupt the International Motor Show with our bodies … We will not let structural obstacles stop us.”
Of course, there will only be a few of them anyway. Because the International Motor Show (IAA), whose organizers have given it the addition “Mobility” this time, will not only take place on the Riem exhibition grounds, but also in public spaces in the city center.
It was only six days ago that three Porsches worth a total of more than two million euros went up in flames in Thalkirchen. A beacon with a view of the IAA? The state security determined. When anonymous arsonists paralyzed the power supply in the east of Munich in mid-May to this day, the sentence “attack IAA” was also found in a letter of confession published a little later. Experts from the Bavarian Central Office for Combating Extremism and Terrorism (ZET) at the Munich Public Prosecutor’s Office are currently investigating what to make of this. And the Office for the Protection of the Constitution reported on request from a left-wing extremist group that claimed responsibility for the arson attack on the power supply for the Tesla construction site in Brandenburg.
In their letter of confession, according to the Bavarian domestic secret service, there is a direct reference to the IAA in Munich: “The insanity of private transport and electromobility can, by the way, easily be further attacked … We hope that there is enough resistance on site, decentralized and also subversive Network there so that this becomes a fiasco. ” The Bavarian left-wing extremist scene is also looking for “a majority connection to the climate movements,” confirms the State Office for the Protection of the Constitution. In addition, the automobile exhibition is the focus of anti-capitalist protests on the part of the left-wing extremist scene. The Office for the Protection of the Constitution does not therefore consider attacks on exhibition vehicles at the IAA to be ruled out.
The IAA opponents announce a “mass action of civil disobedience”
However, the organizers of the “Sand in the Gears” alliance are already distancing themselves from violence. It is not the goal to “destroy or damage infrastructure”. One will behave calmly and prudently. “We will not escalate.”
The IAA opponents announce a “mass action of civil disobedience”, which will block the course of the IAA with “various forms of protest”: “We will not leave any space for this mendacious greenwashing and prevent the fair from running smoothly.” The aim of the activists is to herald “the end of the car age” with a view to the impending climate catastrophe.
A look back at the IAA 2019 in Frankfurt shows what that could look like in concrete terms. There several hundred climate activists from “Sand im Transmission” blocked several entrances to the fair. A main entrance had to be completely closed, visitors had to be diverted. In addition, protesters at the time blocked buses to the IAA or sat in a parking garage entrance. Despite minor scuffles between protesters, trade fair visitors and the police, it was largely peaceful, according to the law enforcement officers at the time.
Nevertheless, the AvD automobile club spoke up a few days ago and demanded that the Munich police must protect exhibitors and visitors better than in Frankfurt. Because the initiators of the blockades are not concerned with the climate, but with “a Marxist autocracy with an ecological disguise”. The state should “not again allow enemies of democracy to pervert the right to demonstrate and abuse it for their crude, sometimes violent activities,” said AvD General Secretary Lutz Linden.
How exactly the protest looks like is still unclear
The Presidium does not want to reveal what the Munich police will do exactly to protect the car show. Only this much: You “prepare for different scenarios”. Specifically, the police headquarters have not yet had any “knowledge of hazards or malfunctions and indications of blockade actions”. If they still exist, the police want to “consistently prevent disorderly disruptions and, if possible, prevent them in advance with suitable measures”. The fact that these preliminary measures are already in progress is denied on Ettstrasse: there have been no threats to date, according to a spokesman for the police headquarters.
A spokeswoman for the climate protection movement Extinction Rebellion and the “No IAA” alliance perceived it differently. One day before a protest at the Bavarian Economic Advisory Board, the state security service was in her apartment. A cooperation talk, as is customary before rallies – or an attempt to intimidate? The action took place anyway: on July 14th, six Extinction Rebellion activists gained access to an office in Munich for the first time. They occupied the rooms of the Bavarian Economic Advisory Board in the art block on Ottostraße, hung a banner with the inscription “This is where the climate pollution lobby is located” – and presented a bouquet of flowers.
The 24-year-old officially complained to the Bureau that the “review” would take a while, the police replied. “Perhaps the police should rethink their categorization of who they classify as a threat and who really endangers our physical integrity,” wrote the young woman from Munich. The spokeswoman also reported on a climate protection activist from the forest box threatened by clearing, who was even threatened with “preventive detention” if he took part in protests against the IAA. There is no confirmation for this, nor for a similar incident reported by “Sand in the Gears”. The initiative considers the fact that authorities tried to suppress protests in advance by repression and intimidation as a “scandal”.
It is currently still completely unclear whether a climate camp for the protest movement can take place. According to the organizers, 1,500 critics of the IAA should not only spend the night there and rest from the protests, but also be able to find out more about the topic in workshops. A KVR spokesman explains that the camp announced for the Theresienwiese is currently in the cooperation and testing phase, as are the major events registered for September 11th, to which numerous other groups, games and associations are calling.
10,000 participants are expected for a large-scale demonstration and, according to the city, more than 25,000 people are expected to take part in a bicycle tour on 17 routes to Munich. The alternative summit “KonTra IAA – Congress for Transformative Mobility”, which also sees itself as part of the protest movement, will also take place in the Feierwerk and in the One World House on September 9th and 10th.
The second week of September will bring visitors and opponents of the IAA in downtown Munich closer to one another. Königs-, Wittelsbacher, Odeons-, Max-Joseph- and Marstallplatz, Hofgarten and Residenz will in principle be freely accessible exhibition spaces, whether there will be fences is currently still open, according to the KVR. Presumably, however, they will be necessary for reasons of infection protection alone. For the “Blue Lane”, a twelve-kilometer transfer and test route for electric, hybrid and hydrogen vehicles as well as emission-free local traffic right through the city, no structural barriers are planned, but motorway exits will be closed
“We are all highly motivated and the IAA can look forward to something,” announces the “Smash IAA” initiative. They will “really get going” in September.