Police in Frankfurt cleared hundreds of protesters who set up camp outside the European Central Bank in October as they prepare for as many as 30,000 anti-capitalist activists to besiege Germany's banking capital for four days of rallies.
Officers started carrying off demonstrators gathered under the Occupy Frankfurt banner at about 9am local time today after issuing several warnings. The camp is being cleared before the ECB begins a conference on monetary policy and the first of the protest rallies gets under way later today.
"We want to change the system, we want to criticise it, and we're not allowed to do so," said Erik Kuhn, an activist at the ECB camp. "We hope to achieve some publicity to show the people in Germany and around Europe that the state and the city of Frankfurt doesn't have a clue how to react to the protests."
Authorities erected fences in front of several banks in Frankfurt, where Germany's largest lenders Deutsche Bank and Commerzbank are based.
The demonstrators outside the ECB, who numbered several hundred, resorted to splashing police with a mixture paint and water in an otherwise peaceful response to the evacuation.
Police closed off a subway station underneath Deutsche Bank's headquarters, one of the targets of the rallies. Commerzbank closed its two towers and closing branch offices to protect their staff and property, the bank said in an e-mailed statement.
The rallies are taking place as disenchantment with Europe and Germany's response to the sovereign debt crisis intensifies and Frankfurt, the euro's birthplace, becomes a focal point of the discontent. The euro and stocks fell as investors speculated that Greece may drop out of the single currency after its budget-deficit blowout triggered a financial crisis across the continent that continues to rage.
Greeks are returning to the ballot box following the collapse of talks to form a government after voters handed Syriza, the country's biggest anti-bailout party, 16.8 percent of power in May 6th elections.
German chancellor Angela Merkel and French president François Hollande, who ousted Nicolas Sarkozy in elections this month, yesterday said they would consider measures to spur economic growth in Greece as long as voters there committed to the austerity demanded to stay in the euro.
Bloomberg