Bonn city center Big police presence for demonstrations
Bonn · Many police units were visible in the city today due to demonstrations of Viva Viktoria.
Passersby in the city may have wondered about all the police action today. Since midday, numerous police units and vans have been at the Viktoriakarree. Protestors have been occupying a building there. As reported, Signa Holding, the firm which owns the occupied building, is an investor which wants to tear down the current buildings in the Viktoriakarree and build a shopping center and library there. In order to do so, it needed to purchase the land from the city. Citizens stopped the selling of the land with their grass roots effort called Viva Viktoria, which collected enough signatures to prevent the city from selling.
Some people thought the police were going to clear out the occupied place at Rathausgasse 6 but police spokesperson Ruth Braun said that was not the case. “Besides a planned demonstration of Viva Viktoria, another demonstration was announced at short notice for 2:30 p.m. My colleagues are there already to secure the streets,” she told General Anzeiger.
Axel Bergfeld of the Viva Viktoria initiative said the extra demonstration was organized so they could have more space on Franziskanerstraße for their march. The demonstration which was planned with more notice will take place at 5 p.m. beginning at Rathausgasse. Bus lines will take alternative routes as the Rathausgasse remains blocked from about 5 to 9 p.m. Bergfeld is expecting around 800 participants.
The initiative is also protesting against the closing of a music and night club called Blow Up. It’s contract with Signa will run out on June 30 and Signa does not plan to renew the rental agreement for the location.
Recently, it has become known that the City of Bonn is looking at the possibility of using the currently occupied bureaus for schooling refugees. It is planned for refugees to be housed in ten of the apartments in the Karree owned by Signa. A speaker for the protest initiative said protestors would clear the office space for refugees on their own as that would be a matter of honor. (Orig. text: Lisa Inhoffen und Rebecca Deus)
