The Limited Times

Now you can see non-English news...

G7 summit at Schloss Elmau: Prepared for everything

2022-06-19T14:16:57.690Z


Border controls, train cancellations, airspace closures: In order to secure the G7 summit, parts of Bavaria are placed in a state of emergency. Leaked documents allegedly show how this worked seven years ago.


Enlarge image

Wellnesshotel Schloss Elmau: It will be difficult to get closer during the summit

Photo: Angelika Warmuth / dpa

When the heads of state and government of seven leading industrial nations meet at Schloss Elmau near Garmisch-Partenkirchen from June 26th to 28th, everything will run smoothly, Federal Chancellor Olaf Scholz is certain.

The security forces are prepared for anything, the SPD politician told the German Press Agency.

“Even though I've taken part in many G7 and G20 summits, all of which went off without a hitch, you obviously have to be prepared.

The police, the Office for the Protection of the Constitution, the services and also the Bavarian security authorities did it very carefully.« But everyone hoped that the peaceful course of the last G7 summit in 2015 in Elmau would be repeated.

Secret documents leaked

However, what happened behind the scenes of that 2015 summit has now inadvertently come to light with the release of confidential police documents.

The files include several classified documents with detailed information on the operations at the time, such as the procedure for arrests, securing police vehicles and the de-escalation concept.

The travel routes planned for 2015 by the various politicians are also part of this.

Several sources from security circles confirmed to the German Press Agency that the documents were authentic.

First the Bayerischer Rundfunk reported on the publication.

It is unclear who put the data on the Internet.

They were available on Sunday, among other things, on a portal classified by the Office for the Protection of the Constitution as a left-wing extremist effort.

Bavaria's interior minister still sees no reason to change the operational concept for the upcoming summit.

"We are currently assuming that it is not critical for the operation that is now imminent," said Joachim Herrmann (CSU) on the sidelines of an event in Erlangen of the German Press Agency.

»We do some things similar to seven years ago.

But the police also do a lot of things differently than they did seven years ago.

In this respect, no direct conclusions can be drawn from what has been published about the actions of the police in the next few days."

170 pistols and rifles confiscated

A number of measures are planned that will put parts of Bavaria in a state of emergency.

The Federal Ministry of the Interior announced that border controls would be set up at the internal borders of the Schengen area between June 13 and July 3.

"The controls are intended to prevent potential violent criminals from entering the federal territory," says the authority.

A collateral success of these controls: On Saturday afternoon, officials at the Mittenwald border crossing stop a transporter in which 170 insufficiently secured pistols and shotguns had been transported in boxes.

According to a police report, however, it was a regular transport.

The guns were to be delivered from a factory in Italy to a gun dealer in Sweden.

The passage had been approved, but the weapons were confiscated due to insufficient security and may only be transported further if "the forwarding agent can guarantee safe transport".

Better not to drive

Even away from the borders, the security measures are likely to result in restrictions and delays for locals and holidaymakers.

All the more so since the summer holidays begin on the weekend before the summit in North Rhine-Westphalia.

The police advise planning more time and avoiding trips that are not absolutely necessary.

The G7 police planning team expects that the routes between Munich and the airport and from Munich to Garmisch-Partenkirchen and Mittenwald will be particularly affected.

Detours are to be signposted for national travel hundreds of kilometers before the summit location at the major motorway junctions near Würzburg, Nuremberg, Feuchtwangen, Ulm, Memmingen and around Munich.

There are corresponding agreements with Austria on traffic management along the Inntal and Brenner autobahns.

Sports pilots have to stay on the ground

The area around Elmau Castle will be completely closed to hikers in the second half of June.

"In addition, it is quite possible to use the natural space in Werdenfelser Land for recreation," says the police.

Whether individual mountain railways operate depends on the specific situation.

In addition, many hiking parking spaces will be closed.

They are needed for the media center and other facilities.

During the arrival and departure of the G7 participants, the airspace over Bavaria will only be usable to a limited extent.

Sports aircraft, hang-gliders and paragliders flying on sight have to remain on the ground in an area from Ingolstadt on the Danube to the Italian border.

At times, the restricted area has a north-south extension of more than 200 kilometers.

At times, the east-west stretch extends more than 100 kilometers from Füssen to Lake Tegernsee.

In a smaller area, the flight ban also applies to drones.

According to the information, airliners flying according to instruments are not affected.

mak/dpa

Source: spiegel

All news articles on 2022-06-19

You may like

News/Politics 2024-02-08T19:24:30.667Z
News/Politics 2024-03-24T09:23:53.927Z

Trends 24h

News/Politics 2024-03-28T06:04:53.137Z

Latest

© Communities 2019 - Privacy

The information on this site is from external sources that are not under our control.
The inclusion of any links does not necessarily imply a recommendation or endorse the views expressed within them.