16 December - Summit under siege
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Dossier index
Copenhagen looks like a city under siege. Choppers in the air, cops in the streets, on buses, on foot, with dogs or on horses. The tension fills the air, inside and outside the Bella Centre. The world leaders are here…
Arriving in Copenhagen this morning, I noticed that the trains were running late. I thought maybe this was because of the snow which, in the morning, was falling like in a Christmas movie. This was partially right. But in the train coming from the Central Station to the Orestad, next to the Bella Centre, a lady told me that for this specific line, the delays were caused by the COP15 protesters who occupied the rails… I could not verify this, but it was a sure sign that the day was going to be anything other than quiet…
Arriving near the Bella Centre, I felt the tension. The security checks started at maybe 500 metres from the main entrance. Polite, but firm.
Police block the protesters way
Photo: Florin Orban
In the media area I found out more about the protests. The police had clashed with the protesters in several areas of the city and made hundreds of arrests. Finally, the main rally arrived next to the Bella Centre. After a fresh confrontation with the police, things calmed down.
I had to see this with my own eyes. When I got there, the atmosphere was pretty jolly. The people who were gathered in the front of the police cordon, most of them young, even teenagers, were singing and dancing, which was probably the only way to cope with the sharp cold.
They were determined to make their voices heard by the world leaders, but the messages were pretty diverse. One French guy I talked to blamed capitalism, but a young Italian girl argued that the most important thing was to change people’s mentality, not the economy.
Meanwhile, the summit continues. With the hope of a fair agreement becoming smaller and smaller…
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