The leaders of the seven major industrial nations will gather at Elmau Castle. An annual meeting where basic global issues are discussed, this year hosted by German Chancellor Olaf Scholz.
Prior to the arrival of the leaders, massive demonstrations were planned in Munich. Leading human rights organizations and environmental movements chose to come together to highlight the need for change.
The war overshadows
Similar protests in previous years have gathered tens of thousands of protesters, and the organizers had planned for about 20,000 participants on Saturday, according to the German news agency DPA.
But about 4,000 people came to the protest meeting.
A disappointment according to one of the organizers, Uwe Hiksch, who, however, had some understanding that the time to challenge world leaders is bad when the Russian war of aggression in Ukraine is going on.
– Our impression is that many are worried about the war in Ukraine.
18,000 police officers
The leaders of Germany, France, the United Kingdom, the United States, Japan, Italy and Canada have agreed before the meeting to discuss climate threats and energy supply, as well as the risk of a global food crisis. But the Russian invasion of Ukraine will overshadow all these issues.
“Russia’s brutal war is also affecting us,” Scholz said in a video recorded ahead of the meeting at the luxury facility.
– We need actual measures to cope with the many crises of our time, says Tobias Hauschild from the organization Oxfam before the meeting.
About 18,000 police officers have been deployed to protect world leaders during the meeting. And when the G7 last met in the Bavarian Alps seven years ago, the leaders were met by 35,000 protesters.