The G7 heads of state and government meeting in the French seaside resort of Biarritz. At Irun, on the other side of the border, to Spain, to protest environmentalists and anti-capitalists. Bernd Riegert from the Anti-summit.
The tents for about 500 Anti-G7-activists are deep in the forest on a disused campsite, six miles from Irun on the French-Spanish border. Between the colorful Two-man tents, rickety buses and hammocks, play meadows children on the lush, running dogs. In the kitchen is cooked. In the evening, will be discussed, music is made and celebrated. The Whole thing has some bearings of a summer.
Most of the inhabitants want to remain anonymous. Are you afraid that the French civil police has the camp been infiltrated. Five persons, suspected to belong to the “Black Block”, so to violent demonstrators, and were, as a precaution, taken into custody – not in the Camp at Irun, but in the surroundings of Biarritz, the glamorous seaside resort, where the weekend of the summit of the seven most economically powerful States will take place.
“G7 presume what”
For twenty years, so long as there are protests against international summits, Hugo brown in the process. The pensioner from Düsseldorf travelled, as usual, as a representative of the organization “attac” to Irun, to demonstrate with some Thousands of activists against globalization, the financial policy and the group of the seven richest States. He sleeps, however, not in the Camp, but in the Hotel. It was age appropriate, he says, smiling.
Hugo brown, since the WTO protests of 1999
“The leader of the most powerful countries gathering at the summit in Biarritz, presume to make decisions that intentionally or unintentionally impact on the whole world. The should actually make the United Nations, the appropriate bodies,” says Hugo Braun. For three days, he participates in the “Alternative summit”. Over fifty groups are represented in the air-conditioned exhibition hall of Irun, 30 kilometers from the actual G7-place Biarritz in France. The claims of groups ranging from the disarming of the police and more rights for Palestinians, the end of globalization and neoliberal economic policy to the banning of nuclear power plants, and more organic farms in the Basque country, and women’s rights. “The offer is so wide, it is difficult to overlook,” says Hugo Braun, of the “attac”. In three sentences you could put the claims of the G7 together.
Flags crafts for the Demonstration: nationalists from the Spanish Region of Navarro are
Yellow jackets in the red Zone?
The total number of protesters, there is no reliable information. The police, according to the French Ministry of the interior with 3000 officials in Irun and a further 10,000 in Biarritz in use. The “Yellow vests” from France, who protested for almost a year against President Emmanuel Macron, with road blockages, are represented in Irun as well. The “Yellow vests” are not sure whether it might not come to violence, if different groups try on Sunday in the “red”, the sealed-off security zone in Biarritz to penetrate. A young activist from Switzerland, does not want to give his name, says in the interview, the police had themselves to blame for the violence because they defend the “violent policies” of the President of the Macron. What exactly he means by that, the man openly. He is with his new girlfriend, whom he met at the protest camp, on the way to the nearby beach. “You can’t spend the whole day in workshops,” he grins. The sun is shining, 26 degrees, On the beach of Irun activists and ordinary tourists mix.
The suspended President
Chantecaille: the Basque against Macron
Catherine Chantecaille remains throughout the day in the exhibition hall to your booth, in order to motivate visitors for a special protest action on Sunday. She works for the Basque environmental organization “Biri”. Together with other organizations it has in the whole of France 127 the official Portraits of President Macron from offices and schools to steal – under the Motto “Depends to a Macron!” The stolen photos will be shown in the vicinity of Biarritz, on Sunday. “The police will of course be there to find out who took down the photos,” says Catherine Chantecaille. “That is why as many people as possible need to come up with their own portraits, to create confusion.” The French authorities understand the Portraits of their presidents no fun. A German activist is to be made in the autumn in Orleans in the process. A fine of 75,000 euros or up to five years in prison. “The photo of you in the gift-Shop in Paris for eight euros to buy. This is ridiculous,” rants Catherine Chantecaille.
“Freedom for Navarro”
Behind her stood a small group of potters to red flags with the yellow Symbol of the Spanish Region of Navarro. You want to the banner, the swing at the long wooden staple rods, on Saturday at the Demonstration. On the question of what to do with the independence aspirations of some of the nationalists in Navarro with the G7, there is a Smile as a response. The counter-summit in Irun comes with a neat and very long final Declaration, with a collection of demands to the end.
Cabaret at the counter-summit: trump’s attempt to buy Greenland, is good for a good laugh
After all: there is a statement of completion. The official summit in Biarritz is to be terminated without the usual paper, has been host Macron has. So to prevent that, the us President, Donald Trump blows up the whole summit, as the last Time in Canada. “I’m surprised, but I think that is the Right thing to do, can do Macron,” said Protest Veteran Hugo brown. “The summit will deal mainly with that, the rubble landscape of the Mr Trump to clean up.” In the coming year, the United States holds the presidency of the G7. Whether and how Donald Trump will hold a summit, is unclear. “Maybe we see us next year at the protests again. But maybe not,” said Hugo brown, and also the Oxfam representative Olivia .