"Such small-minded skirmishes are the business of people who took a whole city hostage for their dimwittedness in an almost terrorist manner," Merkel’s challenger, German Social Democrat (SPD) candidate Martin Schulz told Business Insider of the G-20 protesters.
The "marauding gangs," as he called the demonstrations, weren’t politically affiliated, Schulz said. The mayhem caused by the groups "had the characteristics of terrorism," he continued.
Chancellor Merkel has vowed to pay back property holders whose possessions were damaged as a result of protesters’ unlawful actions.
At least 476 police officers were wounded in clashes with the anti-globalist demonstrators, officials said, and police claimed that their force of 20,000 law enforcement officers took 225 people into custody while arresting 186 more.
Protesters held signs arguing that “capitalism kills.” Some demonstrators, however, jeopardized the lives of innocent people by setting fire to the streets of Hamburg.
World leaders from the top 20 economies by GDP gathered for the G-20 Hamburg Summit from July 7-8.
The summit hosted leaders from Argentina, Russia, France, China, Canada, Brazil, Germany, Australia, India, Indonesia, Italy, Mexico, Japan, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Turkey, the United Kingdom, South Korea, the United States, and the European Union.
Permanent guests to the summit hailed from Guinea, the Netherlands, Norway, Senegal, Singapore, Spain, Switzerland, and Vietnam.
Representatives from the World Trade Organization, the International Monetary Fund, the United Nations, the Financial Stability Board, the Food and Agriculture Organization, the International Labor Organization, the World health Organization, and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development rounded out the list of participants.
