G7 protest turns from carnival to violent stand-off

GENEVA — An anti-G7 protest in Geneva began in a carnival atmosphere on Sunday before descending into violence, with building facades smashed in and police firing tear gas at masked youths.

The day started in tranquil fashion: ahead of the march, people gathered in a park overlooking Lake Geneva, seeking shade from the blazing afternoon sun and catching up with friends as they arrived.

The atmosphere was festive, with people singing and dancing and putting the final touches to their placards, bearing slogans like “G7 = racket. Make anti-imperialism great again”.

READ: Protests set to grip Geneva ahead of G7 summit

Marco, 36, who lives in Geneva, was among those in positive spirits.

“In a time when everyone’s reading depressing news on their phones, it’s an opportunity to see that the left is still alive — and maybe even making a resurgence,” he told AFP.

The “No-G7” umbrella coalition, representing various causes, called the demonstration in the Swiss city to protest against the Group of Seven summit taking place in nearby Evian in France.

“It’s been a long time since I protested,” said Claude, a 65-year-old retiree from La Chaux-de-Fonds in northwest Switzerland. “Now there is an urgent need to protest.”

He was on the march “to demonstrate against the assassins of humanity”, he added.

Car on fire, buildings attacked

Several bands also took part, some with brass instruments, some playing Latin rhythms, people chanting slogans and dancing along as the demonstration followed a long loop through the northern half the city.

Many shop fronts along the route were boarded up, with the plywood then sprayed with graffiti.

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Geneva’s police said around 20,000 people attended; the vast majority were well behaved and not involved in any violence.

But merging in along the route were sections of masked, hooded invidividuals, many dressed all in in black. The police said around 600 so-called “Black Bloc” hardcore demonstrators had joined in the throng.

Not long into the demonstration, a Tesla car went up in flames.

A few firecrackers were thrown towards the riot police squads, many of whom were drafted in from other parts of Switzerland.

Demonstrators lit flares and the march came to a halt as the Geneva offices of the professional services firm PricewaterhouseCoopers came under sustained attack. There were repeated attempts to stave in the windows, the metal shutters were ripped off and the glass battered.

A red-and-white barricade was used to try to smash in the security cameras in the building’s porch.

The police swiftly responded with tear gas, sending people running back into oncoming protesters, ducking through hedges into private gardens or seeking shelter in side alleys to rinse out their eyes.

Lengthy stand-off

Some along the route had slapped stickers on street signs, saying refugees were welcome.

Later on, several glass panels surrounding the memorial to staff from the United Nations’ refugee agency UNHCR who lost their lives while serving refugees were also damaged and sprayed in graffiti. Rubble littered the street.

The nearby International Telecommunication Union, the UN’s telecoms agency, had its front doors smashed up.

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As the march returned to the park where it began, tram stops were shattered, and flares were hurled towards the police, who responded with several rounds of tear gas.

A bin was set on fire in the road as the stand-off dragged on.

Police kept the demonstrators in the park, with tired-looking protesters let out in dribs and drabs as the light began to fade.

The Geneva cantonal police said they had made “several arrests”, adding after sunset that “no injuries have been reported so far”.

“As for property damage, it remains limited considering the significant number of disruptive elements identified,” it added.

As the protest wound down, the No-G7 coalition said that “the spirit of Geneva was on our side — the spirit of freedom and human rights.

“We were able to send a message of solidarity and hope to the world.” /dl