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BERLIN, June 25 (Reuters) – Some 4,000 people marched in Munich on Saturday to call on the leaders of the Group of Seven industrialized countries to take action to tackle poverty, climate change and world hunger and end the dependence on Russian fossil fuels.
Leaders of the United States, Germany, France, Britain, Italy, Canada and Japan will meet on Sunday at the start of a three-day summit at Schloss Elmau in the mountains Bavarians, aimed at increasing pressure on Russia whose actions in Ukraine have created food and energy shortages across the world.
The demonstrators carried banners reading “Stop The War Russia And USA/NATO Hands Off Ukraine” and “Imperialism Starts Here”, and demanded that the G7 allocate more funds to crisis prevention, crisis management civil conflict and economic development.
“Today we’re at the G7 again because we realized that nothing has improved…it’s been going on for so long, we’re destroying ourselves,” said Lisa Munz, a protester wearing a hat topped with a stuffed chicken.
Saturday’s protests in sunny Munich, where the leaders’ flights landed before heading to Elmau, were sponsored by more than 15 organisations, including WWF Germany, Oxfam Deutschland, Greenpeace and Bread for the World.
Officers in riot gear pushed protesters in a brief physical confrontation and police said several officers were physically attacked and nine people arrested during the day, but the protest remained largely peaceful, it said. a Reuters witness.
Some 3,000 officers were on duty across the city, Munich police said.
The G7 typically draws protests from dozens of campaign groups who want to court publicity for their causes and send a message to Western political elites.
This year, however, protesters may struggle to make their presence visible to leaders given the particularly isolated summit location, although this may change if protesters try to cross the pitch to get closer to the summit itself, as some said they planned to. .
“The colorful protest is a clear sign of the strength of many people’s desire for a fundamentally different policy in the G7 countries,” Oxfam Deutschland said in a statement.
G7 leaders are set to discuss forming a climate club to better coordinate carbon pricing and other emissions reduction programs. Nearly 20,000 police have been deployed to provide security for the summit. (Reporting by Sarah Marsh, Riham Alkousaa and Reuters TV; Editing by David Holmes)
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