President Bush gives German Chancellor Angela
Merkel a back rub at last year’s summit.
From June 6-8, Germany will be hosting the 2007 G8 Summit at Heiligendamm, the country’s oldest seaside resort, which is located on the Baltic Sea shore. Apart from the usual rich country suspects, German Chancellor Merkel has also invited the leaders of five major emerging economies–Brazil, China, India, Mexico, and South Africa–as well as five African nations–Nigeria, Egypt, South Africa, Algeria, Senegal, and Ghana–to discuss a wide range of global economic and developmental challenges under the Leitmotif “Growth and Responsibility.” In contrast, World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz–another G8 regular–will probably need to cancel his participation in the coming days. For the time being, however, German authorities are primarily concerned about how to deal with those who have not been invited to the G8 Summit, namely the 100,000 anti-globalization protesters they expect to face off against some 16,000 police, 1,100 soldiers, and nine naval vessels the government in Berlin plans to deploy. A few days ago, 900 interior ministry agents already launched dawn raids against suspected left-wing extremists in 40 apartments across Germany, netting 21 suspects who were charged with planning violent attacks against the G8 Summit. At the same time, it is also becoming clear that right-wing extremists are preparing to stage their own, albeit smaller, G8 protests, drawing on anti-capitalist sentiment that’s much the same to that motivating their left-wing comrades. According to Der Spiegel,
German authorities are already gearing up to prevent violent clashes between left and right-wing extremists at the G8. Of course, the vast majority of protestors will not turn to violence. The most prominent demonstrator among them will be Bono, the U2 singer and activists who has hailed Germany for its commitment to increase official development aid to 0.7 percent of GDP per year, and who will give a concert at one of the G8 protest sites on June 7.
