G7 summit: Elmau Castle hermetically sealed off - 18,000 police officers on duty

Created: 06/20/2022, 10:57 am

By: Sandra Kathe

The summit meeting of the G7 countries will take place next week under strict security precautions.

But there are already problems.

• Big meeting in Elmau:

  The G7 summit will take place from June 26th to 28th.

  Strict security rules apply at the meeting of the heads of state.

• Scholz chairs the meeting:

  For the second time after 2015, the G7 summit is taking place at Schloss Elmau in the district of Garmisch-Partenkirchen.

  The summit will be chaired by Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD).

• Security Precautions: Police announce extreme security precautions for G7 summit.

  Leaked internal police documents from 2015 have surfaced ahead of the meeting.

Munich – With a 16-kilometer-long, meter-high barrier, thousands of sealed manhole covers and a 18,000 police force, the police concept around the venue of the G7 summit once again provides for strict security precautions.

The luxury hotel Schloss Elmau in the district of Garmisch-Partenkirchen, where the G7 meeting is taking place for the second time since 2015, is hermetically sealed off a week before the event begins.

However, the fact that this makes visible protests more difficult causes displeasure among critics.

What exactly critical organizations like the "Stop G7 Elmau" alliance have planned for their protest, which has been announced for weeks, is not officially clear even a week before the summit.

A press conference on Monday (June 20) will provide detailed information about the plans for a large-scale demonstration on the day before the start of the summit in Munich.

20,000 participants have registered for the event, which is organized by an alliance of several organizations.

G7 summit in Elmau: The history of the protests against globalization

View photo gallery

Criticism of the G7 summit: "Incredible curtailment of our freedom of assembly"

In addition, a protest camp with several hundred participants is planned a few kilometers from the venue in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, as the German Press Agency has learned.

Only 50 demonstrators are allowed within sight of the conference venue, and they are brought near the hotel with a police bus under the highest security precautions.

Everyone has to provide their personal details, and arrival under police escort is also mandatory.

A spokeswoman for the opposing alliance criticized the conditions as "an unbelievable curtailment of our freedom of assembly and thus of our fundamental rights".

To secure the G7 summit at Schloss Elmau, police forces have hermetically sealed off a 16-kilometer route around the event location.

© Angelika Warmuth/dpa

In addition to protesters, the locals also criticize the security concept of the event.

The G7 planning staff of the police explained: "The Federal Constitutional Court confirmed in its decisions at the past G8 summit in 2007 in Heiligendamm that such a security area is constitutional in view of the high degree of danger to the summit participants." Avalanche protection barriers exist and about half of the route is secured by police guards. When heads of state arrive, there would be additional road closures, which would ensure that some locals could not come to their houses.

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• These are the members of the G7 alliance:

• Germany

• France

• Italy

• Japan

• Canada

• United States

• Great Britain

Secret G7 summit documents released have no 'mission-critical implications'

Internal police documents from the last summit in Elmau in 2015, which were made public in an unknown manner, caused additional excitement.

The secret material, which has since been classified as genuine by police circles, includes an operation order with detailed listings of police units and their digital radio channels as well as cell phone numbers of police executives.

But documents on the procedure for arrests, on securing police vehicles and on the de-escalation concept have also appeared on the Internet.

Because the police were planning new security concepts for 2022, "no direct conclusions about the actions of the police in the next few days" could be drawn from the published documents, said Bavaria's Interior Minister Joachim Herrmann (CSU) when asked.

A police spokesman also emphasized: "The information published has no mission-critical effects on the security of the G7 summit in 2022."

G7 summit at Schloss Elmau on climate, food and the Ukraine war

The topics that the heads of state of the G7 countries and guests from various partner countries want to discuss include the climate and food crisis and the influence of the Ukraine war.

In addition to representatives of the G7 countries Germany, France, Italy, Japan, Canada, the USA and Great Britain, the President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskyj, has also confirmed his attendance.

Also invited are India, South Africa, Senegal, Indonesia and Argentina.

(ska with dpa/AFP)