Around 30 heads of state and government are expected at the high-calibre Munich Security Conference. This requires the highest security precautions – and this time also an unusual assignment outside of the city center.
Munich (dpa/lby) – Overflight bans, sealed manhole covers and a large contingent of police: Around 4,500 officials from Bavaria and other federal states as well as 300 federal police officers are on duty for the Munich Security Conference from Friday to Sunday. Around 30 heads of state and government and more than 80 ministers are expected to attend the most important expert meeting on security policy worldwide at the luxury hotel Bayerischer Hof. Among them are US Vice President Kamala Harris, French President Emmanuel Macron and Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD).
Explosive dogs searched the conference venue on Friday before the start. According to the Munich police, 1,200 manhole covers and electrical boxes were sealed. Around 700 barriers will be set up, as well as around 1,000 no-parking signs. The ban on stopping applies, for example, along the routes taken by the participants to the conference venue and at the demonstration routes. More than 100 vehicles were towed away, as a spokesman for the Munich police said on Friday.
For the first time, the Federal Police will patrol the airport fence with service horses when guests arrive and depart. The reason for the unusual use is the increased need for security for the high-level meetings, said federal police spokesman Stefan Bayer on Friday. Almost 42 kilometers of fence around the airport have to be secured, and horses are faster off-road.
In December, climate activists stuck themselves to the runways in Berlin and Munich, temporarily paralyzing air traffic. According to the Munich police, such actions are not known. But one is prepared, it said.
On Friday, Munich Airport was still affected by the Verdi warning strike. No airliners flew. However, the special machines of the conference participants would be handled, said a spokesman for the airport. Around 50 flights were planned for Friday in connection with the security conference. US Vice President Harris, among others, arrived in Munich on Thursday.
Around 20 demonstrations are planned because of the security conference, the two largest almost simultaneously on Saturday afternoon. The “Munich Stands Up” alliance, which took to the streets during the pandemic against corona measures, registered a demonstration through the city center with 4,000 participants. The “action alliance against the NATO security conference” wants to demonstrate with around 2,300 people nearby.
People also want to take to the streets against the Ukraine war. According to the organizers, the Ukrainian Nobel Peace Prize winner Olexandra Matwijtschuk and politicians such as Anton Hofreiter (Greens), Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann (FDP) and Florian Hahn (CSU) are expected to attend a rally under the motto “Together against war”.
A no-fly zone will again apply during the conference within a radius of five kilometers around the Sendlinger Tor. Even private drones are not allowed to fly there, the police emphasized. The zone from the Olympic Park to the Perlacher Forest covers almost the entire city area.
