G7 summits are always a challenge for security authorities. A few days before the start of this year’s meeting at Schloss Elmau near Garmisch-Partenkirchen, confidential police documents from the 2015 meeting of the heads of government there were published on the Internet.
Among the files are several papers that have been declared classified. These are actually only intended for internal official use by the police and must not be made public.
Several sources in security circles confirmed to the German Press Agency on Sunday that the documents were authentic. First, the Bavarian radio had reported on the publication.
The classified material includes, for example, an operational order with detailed listings of police units and their digital radio channels, as well as cell phone numbers for police officers. But documents on the procedure for arrests, on securing police vehicles and on the de-escalation concept have also appeared on the Internet.
Bavaria’s Interior Minister Joachim Herrmann tried on Sunday to classify the explosive publications: “We are currently assuming that it is not critical for the operation that is now imminent,” said the CSU politician of the German Press Agency on the sidelines of an event in Gain. “We do some things similar to seven years ago. But the police also do a lot of things differently than they did seven years ago. In this respect, no direct conclusions can be drawn from what has been published about the actions of the police in the next few days.
A spokesman for the Federal Ministry of the Interior said that the documents in question are “classified documents”, the contents of which the Ministry generally does not comment on publicly.
It was initially unclear who put the data online. They were available on Sunday, among other things, on a portal classified by the Office for the Protection of the Constitution as a left-wing extremist effort. According to Herrmann, the police are now investigating.
The G7 summit, chaired by Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD), is planned for June 26-28. As at the last G7 summit at Schloss Elmau in 2015, around 18,000 police officers will be on duty. Opponents of the events have been announcing protests for weeks.
However, even a week before the start of the summit, it was not finally clear what exactly the opponents’ protest would look like. For next Saturday, one day before the summit, an alliance of several organizations is planning a large-scale demonstration with 20,000 registered participants in Munich. In addition, several hundred activists planned a protest camp during the summit time on a meadow in Garmisch-Partenkirchen. However, the opponents are said to have been banned from several other demonstrations, according to the “Stop G7 Elmau” alliance.
The police have already hermetically sealed off the conference venue. Since Sunday morning, only those who can show accreditation have had access. The area is taboo for tourists. Around the castle there is a 16 kilometer long and sometimes meter high barrier.
In order to still be able to protest against the G7 summit within sight of the conference venue, opponents of the meeting want to be taken to Elmau Castle in police buses. A spokeswoman for the alliance said on Saturday that they had been promised that they would be allowed to protest with a delegation of 50 demonstrators near the hotel. “Anyone who wants to go to the security zone must provide their personal details, be searched and be taken there by police bus.”
