The press secretary of the Hamburg police, Timo Zill, spoke about Hamburg’s preparation for the G20 summit, which will be held in the city on July 7-8. According to Zill, about 15,000 policemen will secure the event, which will be attended by about 30 high-ranking state delegations from around the world.
The German law enforcement officers will be assisted by their colleagues from other European countries in this task. The Hamburg police is taking unprecedented measures to ensure order, not least in connection with the planned actions by the left-wing extremists, which threaten to obstruct the summit. "We expect about 7-8 thousand of ready-for-violence demonstrators to participate in the rallies,” Zill said.
In addition, numerous peaceful demonstrations are expected in the largest port city - at the moment the police registered 26 demonstrations for the period from July 2 to 7. In order to ensure security of the G20 summit, the federal government allocated 50 million euros.
Meanwhile, as the representative of the Senate of Hamburg noted, the choice of a city as a venue for the summit is not accidental: "In Germany, there are not so many large cities capable of hosting such a large-scale event. The city has good infrastructure, many hotels. In addition, Hamburg is a symbol of Germany's openness to peace, " the speaker of Hunmburg’s Senate, Jörg Schmöll said.
Georg Streiter, Deputy Speaker of the Federal Government of Germany, noted that the choice in favor of Hamburg was made by Chancellor Angela Merkel - a native of this city. As Streiter noted, Germany will not cease its struggle to protect the climate and will continue to make attempts to return the US to the Paris climate agreement. "Sometimes people can be persuaded," Streiter said.
A representative of the public initiative Haltung Hamburg, Dr. Nicholas Hill noted, in his turn, that a reaction of the inhabitants of Hamburg to the very fact of holding the event in their city is very heterogeneous - from sharp criticism to approval. Many are annoyed by the inconvenience in everyday life in connection with the preparation of the event, transport restrictions and accompanying demonstrations. "A popular argument of critics is that a lot of resources are spent without any real political outcome. Others believe that it is better when such a summit takes place in the city, as the world leaders should see the protests of the population, come closer to the real world and feel the pressure of protests. In my opinion, most Hamburgers would prefer that the summit take place in some other city, "Hill suggested.
