ZURICH – Switzerland is also infected by the revolt that broke out in France, after the killing of Nahel, the 17-year-old of Algerian origin, shot down in Nanterre by a brigadier of the National Police. On the evening of Saturday 1 July, around a hundred young people, with their faces covered by balaclavas, many of them of North African and Balkan origin, gathered in the center of Lausanneunleashing their anger against several businesses, some of which have been looted.
Boy killed by a policeman, fifth night of violence in France: over 700 arrested 02 July 2023
Particularly affected by the riots the neighborhood of Flon, full of restaurants, boutiques and, on holidays in the evenings, frequented by people who appreciate the nightlife ritual. To contain the violent demonstrators, the police intervened in force, in riot gear. The officers were subjected to stone throwing and a Molotov cocktail. In a statement, the command of the Cantonal Police reports 7 arrests, including 6 minors. Fortunately, there were no injuries, neither among the policemen nor among the “casseurs”, as in French those who give life to scenes of urban warfare are defined. The fact remains that French-speaking Switzerland, especially the cities of Geneva and Lausanne, are at risk of revolt, given that in their suburbs there is an unease not unlike that of the transalpine banlieues.
Police on protests in France: “It’s a war”. And the left rises: “Climate of sedition” from our correspondent Benedetta Perilli 02 August 2023
The absence of the state
These are realities from which the state has gradually withdrawn, where small businesses are closing down and where pushers and small gangs of violent teenagers rule, often children of non-integrated immigration. The breaking latest news deals with these realities, on which the rich Swiss would like to draw a veil, on the occasion of particularly bloody news episodes. Like the one that occurred in the town of last April Thonex, in the Canton of Geneva, where a group of minors stabbed an 18-year-old to death. “In reality – explains the sociologist at the University of Geneva, Sandro Cattacin – there is a considerable amount of social assistance work and perhaps it is more correct to say that the State is more present in Switzerland than in France”.
Those bridges beyond the violence of Concita De Gregorio 02 July 2023
Did these young people who took to the streets in Lausanne do it out of solidarity? “Knowing the situations, I’d say that there was an imitation effect, linked more to affirming a banlieu spirit, but less suffering, at least based on my experience, than the French one”. The fact remains that, for example, in Vernier, the second largest municipality in the Canton of Geneva and one of the most disadvantaged in Switzerland, there are “Le Libellules”, a district where the majority of the approximately 2,500 inhabitants are unemployed and live on subsidies . A perpetually boiling cauldron, which the authorities and social services struggle to keep under control. From there and from other disadvantaged places that we can find in La Chaux de Fonds, in Neuchâtel, in Bienne but also in Schlieren, on the outskirts of Zurich, a revolt could start following the example of the French one.