Amid protests, Merkel hopes for a win-win

of the Group of 20 top industrial and developing countries arrived on Thursday in Hamburg as police in Germany’s second-biggest city braced themselves for a major protest by antiglobalisation activists.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said she hoped the G-20 leaders meeting Friday and Saturday would be able to find “compromises and answers” on a wide range of issues.

Merkel said leaders would address regulating financial markets, fighting terrorism and pandemics and combatting climate change, among other issues. She said “free, rule-based and fair trade” will be an important issue.

“You can imagine that there will be discussions that will not be easy,” she said. “Globalization can be a win-win situation. It must not always be that there are winners and losers.”

The port city boosted its police force with reinforcements from around the country for the summit, and has 20,000 officers on hand to patrol Hamburg’s streets, skies and waterways.

More than 100,000 protesters are expected in the city for the summit, with some 8,000 considered part of Europe’s violent leftwing scene, according to police.

Ahead of the summit, a Thursday evening demonstration is planned, which organizers have titled as “G-20: Welcome to Hell.”

While protests so far have been largely calm, city police chief Ralf Martin Meyer told ZDF television: “We are skeptical as to whether this evening and tonight will remain peaceful.”

Demonstrators have promised massive protests against Trump, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, three of the more controversial guests at the summit. AP