Reportage : The Summit of Summits Hamburg, Germany - 2017

In June 2017, the presidents of the twenty most important industrialized and emerging countries visited Hamburg for the G20 summit. In addition, there arrived the delegation members of each president, certain invited presidents-and demonstrators who criticized the gathering as "undemocratic and elitist". The predictions and the fearmongering prior the summit were impressive and the police created a 38 km2 area that contained the center and the surroundings of the airport, where it was forbidden to gather or demonstrate-and, by implication, to express political opinions during this important political conference. Olaf Scholz, the Secretary of the Interior in Hamburg, proclaimed the event a "festival of democracy". During the two days of the summit, 31,000 policewomen and men were in charge of controlling the outstanding situation by using around 45 water cannons and all kinds of special equipment for riot control. Despite the large number of police forces, the use of special forces, and the no-demonstration zone, the security forces lost control during the riots on several occasions. Protestors plundered supermarkets and shops, erected barricades, and set them alight. More than 60,000 demonstrators expressed their opinions in a peaceful manner.