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Guardian: German protesters challenge rally ban at G8 summit
By Erik Kirschbaum
BERLIN, May 18 (Reuters) – The German wing of an anti-globalisation group said on Friday it would mount a legal challenge to a ban on rallies outside the G8 summit next month.
Peter Wahl, a leader of the Attac group in Germany, told journalists that authorities were violating their rights to freedom of speech and assembly by banning demonstrations within 2 km (1.2 miles) of a fence set up around the summit venue at the Baltic Sea town of Heiligendamm.
“We’re not going to accept that,” Wahl said, adding in his view the police restrictions on the right to demonstrate at the June 6-8 summit of world leaders were “Russian style”. Wahl said they would challenge the police order in court.
A German government spokesman dismissed the accusations.
“They are completely over the top, unfounded and malicious,” government spokesman Thomas Steg said in Berlin. He said the German government has a high level of respect for the protesters and that peaceful demonstrations would not be disrupted.
The criticism from Attac came as G8 summit host Chancellor Angela Merkel took Russian President Vladimir Putin to task for stopping opposition figures reaching a rally near the European Union-Russian summit in Volzhsky Utyos.
“All of those who want to stage a rally in Samara should be able to do so,” Merkel said in opening remarks at a post-summit news conference with Putin.
“I can understand if you arrest people that are throwing stones or threaten the right of the state to enforce order…But it is altogether a different thing if you hold people up on the way to a demonstration.”
Although 100,000 had been expected at rallies near Heiligendamm, there has been a sharp increase in the numbers planning to attend since the police order was announced, Attac said. Recent police raids on left-wing groups have mobilised supporters.
To protect the world leaders, Germany has built a 2.5-metre high steel and cement security “fence” topped with barbed wire. The 13 million euros ($17 million) fence runs 12 km around Heiligendamm.
Wahl said Attac planned only peaceful demonstrations.
“We’re thrilled about a large number of new members and the increased donations that followed the police raids,” said Sven Giegold, another Attac leader.
The German office for the protection of the constitution warned in December of possible attacks from left-wing extremist groups opposed to the policies of the G8, which comprises Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia and the United States.