Tens of thousands of anti-austerity activists from 39 European countries have rallied in Frankfurt in protest against the European Central Bank, which opened its new headquarters in the German financial city.
Updated figures showed that around 20,000 people filled Frankfurt's historic Römerberg square for a peaceful rally on Wednesday afternoon, just hours after the European Central Bank unveiled its new headquarters in the financial hub.
The demonstration was organized by Blockupy, an alliance of trade unions and anti-capitalist groups critical of the ECB's role in restrictive austerity measures in EU member states, such as Greece.
The peaceful march was a marked contrast to scenes witnessed in the early hours of the morning, as anti-capitalist protesters torched security vehicles and engaged in street battles with police.
The ECB, along with the European Commission and International Monetary Fund, is part of the so-called "troika" that monitors compliance with the conditions of bailout loans for financially troubled countries in Europe. Some of those conditions have been blamed for increasing unemployment and stunting economic growth.
Show of Unity
Spaniard Sol Trumbo Vila, who was in Frankfurt facilitating the international coordination of the Blockupy coalition, told DW that participants had come from France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Denmark, Italy, Spain, Portugal, and several other countries, to show their solidarity with Greece.
"The ECB is considered one of the main actors in the imposition of austerity policies being implemented all over the European Union," he said. "That's why many people from different European countries felt the need to come here and show their opposition to the Europe that is being built now."
Of the international participants, the largest contingent came from Italy. Giorgio Grappi, an activist from Bologna, told DW it was important for Europeans to stand up to the ECB's policies.
"We are here to show what kind of Europe we want, and I really hope we can have a lively demonstration and express our ideas of a different Europe," he said.
The Frankfurt protest was scheduled to coincide with the unveiling of the ECB's new headquarters in the city.
"I think it's really important to highlight the fact that while [the ECB] has just built a new headquarters for more than a billion euros, at the same time they're demanding countries slash their public budget by over that sum, it shows where their priorities are," said Pascoe Sabido, who travelled from Belgium where he works with the Corporate Europe Observatory.
New HQ
Earlier in the day, the ECB's 1.3-billion-euro ($1.4 billion) twin tower headquarters was officially inaugurated by the central bank's president, Mario Draghi.
Speaking to an audience of about 100 guests at the low-key ceremony, Draghi said it was "not fair" to single out the ECB for unpopular austerity restrictions in place in some parts of Europe, and described protesters' actions as misguided, saying that countries need to take on more responsibility themselves.
"People are going through difficult times. There are some, like many of the protesters outside today, who believe the problem is that Europe is doing too little," Draghi said. "But the euro area is not a political union of the sort where some countries permanently pay for others."
Street Battles
In the early hours of Wednesday, fierce clashes broke out between police and a group of protesters who set several security vehicles on fire and hurled stones and tear gas at officers.
Police said 350 people were arrested, but that those intent on violence were a minority.
Authorities added that at least 14 police officers were injured in the confrontations, while protest organizers said on Twitter that more than 100 rally participants were hurt by pepper spray.
What is Blockupy, and What is its Mission?
Blockupy isn't some rag-tag little group of anarchists. It's a leftist alliance composed of more than 90 organizations from across Europe – some big, some small – that have united in opposition to what Blockupy calls "the European crisis regime."
Some of the bigger member organizations include the activist groups Attac, founded in 1998 to advocate a financial transaction tax; the German political party 'Die Linke' (The Left), which currently has a little over ten percent of the seats in the national parliament; and even Germany's second biggest union union, Verdi, which has over two million members.
The organization describes itself as a broad Europe-wide movement whose aim is to "build democracy and solidarity from the bottom up." It's against the economic policy stance of most current eurozone governments, which Blockupy describes as "austerity," or a push for balanced budgets at the expense of the poor and middle class.
A specific example of austerity policies Blockupy condemns is the harsh budget restraint imposed on Greece since 2010. Those policies were imposed by the three institutions that have funded the rolling-over of Greece's accumulated national debt since the country nearly went bankrupt five years ago: the International Monetary Fund (IMF), European Commission and ECB, which together are often referred to as "the Troika."
How Does Blockupy Relate to Occupy?
Occupy Frankfurt is a member of the Blockupy alliance, and helped organize it. Occupy Frankfurt was inspired by Occupy Wall Street, which was formed in response to a call to "occupy Wall Street" on September 17, 2011, put out by the Canadian activist public relations group and magazine publisher Adbusters in the summer of that year.
Occupy Wall Street and – just weeks later – Occupy Frankfurt protesters responded by setting up tent camps in public parks as symbols of "occupation." Both camps were shut down by police about a year later.
Occupy Frankfurt and allied anti-capitalist groups called for a blockade of Frankfurt's banking district over Ascension weekend in April 2012. Several tens of thousands of people turned up for the demonstration. The demonstration's organizers kept working together afterward, and recruited additional member organizations. The Blockupy alliance emerged from that.
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