Protestors and police clash at new bank HQ
Clashes between anticapitalist protesters and German police have left dozens injured and a trail of destruction in Germany’s financial capital as the European Central Bank opened its new headquarters.
In fierce street battles yesterday in Frankfurt, 14 police and 21 protesters were wounded and 19 arrests were made after seven police cars were set ablaze and a police station pelted with rocks. Firefighters also came under attack when they were called to douse burning cars and barricades made from toppled garbage bins.
Blockupy organisers said on Twitter that more than 100 demonstrators were injured by tear gas and pepper spray.
Blockupy attempted to distance itself from the violence, which happened at the official opening of the ECB’s towering new headquarters.
‘‘This is not what we in Blockupy had planned,’’ spokesman Ulrich Wilken told a news conference. But he said he ‘‘understood’’ people’s anger at the ‘‘policies of impoverishment’’ being imposed on people by governments and international creditors in crisis-hit eurozone countries.
A march through the city centre and rally on Frankfurt’s historic Roemerberg square in the afternoon drew 15,000 people, according to police, or 20,000 according to organisers.
The target of protesters’ anger was the ECB’s new 185m high twin-tower headquarters, which was officially opened by the central bank president Mario Draghi.
Draghi, addressing about 100 guests at a low-key ceremony, rejected blame for the suffering brought by budget cuts and austerity policies in Europe. ‘‘Our action has been aimed precisely at cushioning the shocks suffered by the economy.’’
Blockupy brings together anti-capitalist and antiausterity protesters from across Europe. Speakers at the final rally included members of protest groups such as Attac, trade unions as well as Greece’s governing leftist Syriza party, and Miguel Urban of Spain’s leftwing Podemos.