Free & Hanseatic city Hamburg
(2)
THE Hamburg we revisited had none of the telltale marks of donneybrook that stole the thunder from the G-20 summit on 7-8 July. The City had returned to the posh Jungfernstieg and the bright lights of Grosse Freiheit.
Chancellor Angela Merkel had three choices for the site to host the G-20 – Berlin, Munich, or Hamburg. When Hamburg was decided as the summit’s location, it was feared that the city and its 1.8 million residents would suffer. (It could have happened to any one chosen.)
The security required to welcome world leaders like US President Donald Trump, Russian President Vladimir Putin, and Turkish President Tayyip Recep Erdogan would be disruptive to residents and businesses. But the Lady Chancellor was not one one for turning.
At the same time, demonstrators from across Germany and beyond prepared to exercise their right to assemble. Up to 12,000 people attended the anti-G-20 protest, with the sign “Welcome to Hell.” Authorities cordoned a RedZone, closing the area to all but the G-20 leaders and their convoys and administrators. Part of the 20,000 police were committed to secure the delegations. (As such, these units were not available to cover and anticipate the marauding demonstrators. Furthermore, it would have been inconceivable to tap the armed forces for civilian security.)
At the conclusion of G-20, Chancellor Merkel expressed satisfaction over the coherence of the Leaders on matters of free trade, protection of climate, and fight against global warming. She noted that heads of state and government of the 20 industrially developed countries agreed to leave the markets free for trade and at the same time, spoke against protectionism.
Trump “A majority of one.” On the fight against global warming and protection of climate, the German chancellor said that the meeting cleared disagreements among the parties on this issue. She expressed satisfaction with the fact that, with the exception of the USA, all the G-20 countries considered implementation of the Paris agreement irreversible and committed to its objectives. Leaders took note of the United States’ withdrawal from the Paris Agreement, which they affirmed as irreversible, and they endorsed the G-20 Hamburg climate and energy action.
Merkel said she didn’t expect any change in the position of Donald Trump. Shaping an interconnected world, the Leaders adopted an action plan to enhance counter-terrorism cooperation and tackle foreign terrorist fighters.
The comprehensive report on results of the G-20 meeting in Hamburg will be submitted in November.The 13th G-20 summit will be hosted by Argentina in 2018.
It is a different world with Trump and British Brexit. The entente cordiale between Chancellor Merkel and the new French President Emmanuel Macron helped hold up the center. Herman Reuter, who participated in yearlong preparations for the summit with senior officials of the banking industry, said that the event has probably stoked the word “de-globalization.” A cynic might add that, in a way, the riot was helpful in creating a diversion from the shortcomings of the summit.
After rioters set up street barricades, looted supermarkets and attacked police with slingshots, Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere said: “These were unbounded violent excesses out of a desire for destruction and brutality...Completely uninhibited attacks against people and objects, looting and arson by anarchists from Germany and Europe, have nothing to do with political motives or protest.” Mr. De Maiziere said police and judicial authorities must take a tough stance against such crimes, and it was good arrests were made.
There is an initiative to foreclose the squatter’s Rote Flora, an old theater in the city’s Sternschanze quarter at the center of debate about left-wing violence in Hamburg at the G-20 summit.Activists from this former theatre were organizers of the “Welcome to Hell” demonstration on Thursday, during which conflicts between police and anarchist rioters began to escalate.
Chancellor Merkel sharply condemned the violence of the left extremists, saying that the unbridled violence and impetuous cruelty doesn’t have justification. The chancellor promised help for victims during collisions in Hamburg caused by hooligans. She also thanked police officers and law enforcement agencies for their work in days of meeting at so high a level and in so a difficult situation. (After the violent riots surrounding the G-20 summit in Hamburg, the city’s newly opened Elbphmiharmonie concert hall thanked police officers by offering them free seats at a piano concert. They are invited by Hamburg-born pianist Sebastian Knauer, who was deeply concerned by the violence against police.)
*** May asim pa. Meanwhile, back home, QEVTech sent one Sarao jeepney to its R&D center in Barcelona, Spain, to convert a prototype electric public transport vehicle that is efficient, clean, and modern. QEVTech will install chargers at Ayala, SM malls, and Shell stations that can load an e-jeepney in slightly over 10 minutes.
QEV Tech launched the prototype model with Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez, Energy Secretary Alfonso Cusi, Transportation Secretary Arthur Tugade, and Public Works Secretary Mark Villar at 6 p.m. yesterday (Thursday, 20 July 2017) at Shangri-La Fort Bonifaco. FEEDBACK: