ANGST, DEFIANCE and the smell of fresh leek soup hung in the air of the “Anti-Nato” camp outside Strasbourg yesterday.
Hundreds of twentysomethings crawled out of their tents to drink coffee, chop vegetables and swap news of the night before.
The summit had not even begun but French police used tear gas and rubber bullets to disperse a riot of French protesters in central Strasbourg on Thursday night. Some 150 people were arrested in one evening – more than the 111 arrests during the entire G20 summit in London – and more trouble is likely today.
Up to 40,000 protesters are expected to converge in Strasbourg by this morning. The plan: to block all roads to the Palais de la Musique where the Nato council meets at 10am.
Police say another 2,000 “black block” protesters – so called for the black clothes and hoods they wear – will show up.
Most of the protesters at the Ganzau camp, 10km from the city, are friendly Germans in their 20s who cut their teeth at the 2006 G8 summit in Germany. They are a broad coalition of interest groups, from “Free Borders” to “Pax Christi”, united behind a banner of peaceful protest against what they see as an aggressive war alliance.“This is a proxy war. We know we cannot stop anything, particularly given the reputation of French police” says Holger, a 26-year-old punk.
“We simply want to start a discussion among people and build pressure from below to Nato’s policy of military actions in its own interest.”
There are veterans of 1980s protests against US missiles on West German soil. “Since the collapse of the Warsaw Pact, Nato continues to create, then ‘discover’ new enemies to justify its existence,” said Jutta (56), from Berlin. “I’m worried about what lies ahead. Will there be Nato involvement in wars over natural resources, or missions against civilian populations in Europe amid unrest?”
With some 20,000 German and French riot police, the cost of the two-day operation has been put at €110 million. Central Strasbourg was a ghost town yesterday; anyone who could leave for the weekend was gone. “The Nato people had the nerve to tell us that this will reflect well on Strasbourg,” said an elderly lady at a synagogue. “But if something serious happens, that’ll be a lovely image for Strasbourg, won’t it?”
