{"id":83899,"date":"2026-06-14T14:36:27","date_gmt":"2026-06-14T14:36:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/83899\/"},"modified":"2026-06-14T14:36:27","modified_gmt":"2026-06-14T14:36:27","slug":"50k-g7-protesters-shut-down-major-city-ahead-of-trump-visit-to-french-swiss-border","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/83899\/","title":{"rendered":"50K G7 protesters shut down major city ahead of Trump visit to French-Swiss border"},"content":{"rendered":"

GENEVA \u2013 President Trump is hosting UFC fighters on the White House lawn Sunday<\/a> night but the real battle may be on the streets of Geneva, where 50,000 people are expected to take to the streets of Switzerland\u2019s second largest city to protest the G7 summit.<\/p>\n

Geneva essentially shut down on Sunday. Businesses closed and boarded up their windows. Anti-protester wire fencing was raised around the streets. And police vans took their places on corners, with officers wearing riot gear in preparation.<\/p>\n

Trump arrives at the G7 on Monday<\/a>. He, like most world leaders, will arrive at Geneva\u2019s airport before traveling to the summit location in nearby Evian, France.\u00a0<\/p>\n

French and Swiss authorities shut down 27 border crossings on Sunday to keep the protesters away from the small spa-town on the shores of Lake Geneva where Trump and the other world leaders will stay.<\/p>\n

Military helicopters flew over Lake Geneva, circling its famous Jet d\u2019Eau, one of the tallest fountains in the world. Police boats patrolled the waters.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Geneva boarded up businesses ahead of planned protesters on Sunday REUTERS<\/p>\n

The protesters, who had to get permits for Sunday\u2019s event, is a \u201cNo-G7\u201d coalition of more than 60 associations, unions and left-wing groups that denounce \u201cfascism and imperialism\u201d.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe only good system is a sound system,\u201d read one of many signs the groups pasted around Geneva.\u00a0<\/p>\n

There is concern Sunday\u2019s event could be a repeat of 2003 when violent protesters smashed windows and caused thousands in damage on the sidelines of the G8, when Russia was a member of the group.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are very afraid of the policy and the politics of Mr. Trump and also of the other leaders of the G7, because they are fighting, making war all over the place,\u201d Francoise Nyffeler, spokesperson for the NoG7 coalition, told the Associated Press.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe planet is in danger and we are very scared about it and we want to protest and say that the people of the world are against their policies,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n

Workers install a baracade to close the border crossing between Hermance in Switzerland and Chens sur Leman in France, ahead of the upcoming G7 summit. AFP via Getty Images<\/p>\n

A \u201cNo-G7\u201d coalition of more than 60 groups is organizing the protest MARTIAL TREZZINI\/EPA\/Shutterstock<\/p>\n

One protest already took place on Friday, when a flotilla of around 20 boats parked off the shore of Evian on Lake Geneva on Saturday, displaying anti-G7 and pro-Palestinian banners.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Given the determination of the groups and the number of world leaders who will be in the area, both French and Swiss military members have been deployed to back up local police.\u00a0<\/p>\n

There is a heavy police presence throughout the city JEAN-CHRISTOPHE BOTT\/EPA\/Shutterstock<\/p>\n

The G7 brings together the leaders of the world\u2019s largest developed economies \u2014 Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United States. <\/p>\n

French President Emmanuel Macron, who is the summit host, also invited several other leaders, including from India and several Middle East nations.<\/p>\n

The three-day summit, which begins Monday, is the first such gathering of leaders since Trump launched the Iran war<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The start was postponed for a day so Trump could mark his 80th birthday Sunday <\/a>at the White House, where the UFC will stage seven bouts in an octagon<\/a> built on the South Lawn.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"GENEVA \u2013 President Trump is hosting UFC fighters on the White House lawn Sunday night but the real…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":83900,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[4],"tags":[18,42211,41,17,1048],"class_list":["post-83899","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-switzerland","tag-donald-trump","tag-protesters","tag-swiss","tag-switzerland","tag-us-news"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ch\/116748968622060226","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83899","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=83899"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83899\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/83900"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=83899"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=83899"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=83899"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}