More
than 22,000 police have been deployed in the German Alpine resort town
of Garmisch-Partenkirchen as thousands protest in advance of the arrival
of G7 leaders for a two-day summit.
The
demonstrations have so far been peaceful, Hans-Peter Kammerer, a police
spokesman, said on Saturday, but that significant numbers of
“extremists” from Germany, Austria, Italy and Britain were thought to be
joining the expected crowd of about 8,000.
The leaders are expected to discuss various global issues such a security, energy and the economy.
Simon
Ernst, a spokesperson for the protesters, said they wanted to show
their anger at the G7 leaders, calling them “the henchmen of bankers and
corporations”.
Oxfam,
the anti-poverty charity, staged a colourful protest on Saturday,
depicting the G7 leaders with huge heads and kitted out with walking
boots and maps.
The
charity is urging the leaders from the Group of 7 industrial countries
to find the “right path” to overcome poverty and inequality.
Steffen Kuessner, a spokesperson for Oxfam, said social inequality was missing from the leaders’ agenda.
“The leaders have lost their way on the path to a world without poverty,” said Kuessner.
“They
have to choose the right path between growing social inequality or
fighting poverty, and to do so they must reform international tax
regulations, among other things.”
Meanwhile,
the hostess of the summit, German Chancellor Angella Merkel, is calling
for the G7 leaders to throw their weight behind a long-standing pledge
to seek $100bn to help poor countries tackle climate change.
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