Schloss Elmau is fenced in: security measures for the G7 summit outrage conservationists
Created: 05/03/2022, 2:45 p.m
By: Janine Napirca
The G7 countries are meeting in Bavaria for the second time.
As in 2015, Elmau Castle in Werdenfelser Land is the setting.
In the meantime, the security measures are also being implemented.
Elmau – The venue of the G7 summit 2022 in Elmau will be cordoned off.
Work is currently underway to guarantee the protection and security of the representatives of the G7 countries.
For the forthcoming meeting at Elmau Castle near Krün (Garmisch-Partenkirchen district), a protective fence will therefore be erected around the site.
Security at the 2022 G7 summit in Elmau: the castle is protected by a 16-kilometer fence
The fence around Schloss Elmau is said to be 16 kilometers long and sometimes meters high in order to protect the heads of state and government of the G7 countries taking part in the 2022 summit in Germany.
The barrier around Schloss Elmau is partly made of wire mesh fence, partly of avalanche protection structures.
A security zone with a total area of four square kilometers is to be shielded.
Access to the protected zone is only granted to those who can show accreditation.
The area is taboo for tourists.
Workers build the fence for the G7 summit in the forest against the backdrop of the Wetterstein Mountains around Elmau Castle.
© Angelika Warmuth/dpa
As of June 19, the exclusion zone around the venue of the G7 meeting 2022 in Germany is to be closed, as was recently announced at a citizen information.
There will also be a tighter security area around the luxury hotel, where the heads of state and government of the G7 countries will meet from June 26th to 28th.
In its decisions at the last G8 summit in 2007 in Heiligendamm, the Federal Constitutional Court confirmed that such a security area is constitutional in view of the high degree of danger to the summit participants.
Police, planning staff G7
"In its decisions at the last G8 summit in 2007 in Heiligendamm, the Federal Constitutional Court confirmed that such a security area is constitutional in view of the high degree of danger to the summit participants," the G7 planning staff informed the police on request.
Due to the exclusion of Russia, the G7 summit has been held annually since 2014 and no longer the G8 summit.
It is based on the security concept of the 2015 G7 summit in Elmau
There was already such a fence at the first G7 summit at Schloss Elmau seven years ago.
Even then, this caused resentment among the locals.
Some of the fence elements are flown into impassable terrain by helicopter.
Wire loops are laid on trees - on mats to protect the trunks - to which the fence is to be attached.
The implementation of the security concept for the G7 summit 2022 in Elmau is in full swing.
© Angelika Warmuth/dpa
You can find more current news about the 2022 summit at Merkur.de/G7-Gipfel Elmau
Large demonstration planned against the G7 summit in Munich
As at the 2015 G7 summit in Elmau, opponents of the summit want to take to the streets and demonstrate, including in Mittenwald and Garmisch-Partenkirchen.
However, the largest demo against the 2022 summit of the G7 countries in Germany is to take place in Munich – with at least 20,000 participants.
Safety of the G7 countries at the summit meeting: conservationists see the environment at risk
Bavaria's Interior Minister Joachim Herrmann (CSU) recently assured that nature conservation would be given priority in the measures.
A parking lot for hikers near the castle would have to be converted into a helipad, for example.
The trees standing in the way would not be felled, but dug up and used elsewhere.
This is nature's nursery at this time.
That doesn't fit here - just like the whole summit doesn't fit.
Axel Doering, district chairman of the Bund Naturschutz In Bayern and president of the environmental umbrella organization Cipra Germany
This fence does not belong in this place - especially not at this time of year, criticizes the district chairman of the Bund Naturschutz In Bayern (BN), Axel Doering.
"This is nature's nursery at this time," says Doering, who is also President of the environmental umbrella organization Cipra Germany.
The helicopter flights, which will increase sharply at the peak time, disturbed the sensitive nature around the castle with its animal and plant world.
"It doesn't fit here - just like the whole summit doesn't fit."
A lot of things are already closed off in the village – including publicly accessible charging stations for electric cars.
According to Interior Minister Herrmann, the security concept for the 2022 G7 summit in Elmau will cost 180 million euros – the state of Bavaria wants to recover the expenses from the federal government as the summit organizer.
(dpa/jn)
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