GENEVA: Protesters in Geneva threw stones and firecrackers at the police, who responded with tear gas and water cannons during a demonstration Sunday against the G7 summit in nearby Evian.
Thousands had turned out in the Swiss city, to protest against the gathering of top world leaders, which starts across Lake Geneva in France on Monday.
As the clashes raged Sunday evening between some groups of protesters and police in several parts of Geneva, French President Emmanuel Macron, this year’s summit host, arrived in Evian.
He will welcome the leaders of the other Group of Seven countries — Britain, Canada, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United States — to the lakeside spa town on Monday, along with invited leaders from several other countries, including Brazil and India.
The three-day summit will be one of the first major international gatherings since the United States and Israel launched a war against Iran in late February, upending the Middle East and widening transatlantic tensions.
The group will have a packed agenda of potentially explosive issues, including efforts to end the war in Iran, with US President Donald Trump’s claims of an imminent deal shrouded in uncertainty.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is also due to attend, putting the war sparked more than four years ago by Moscow’s full-scale invasion in keen focus.
Most of the leaders, including Trump, will be arriving at Geneva Airport, before making the journey to Evian.
Geneva — about 40 kilometres (25 miles) southwest of Evian — had been on edge or weeks. The city’s authorities were anxious to prevent a repeat of the mayhem of 2003, when anti-G8 rioters caused millions of dollars worth of damage in the Swiss city. This time, the Geneva authorities had permitted a march around a lengthy loop on the north side of the city — well away from the city centre and its luxury boutiques. By Saturday, small shops, supermarkets and university buildings — some of them far from the protest route — had boarded up their facades. Despite the precautions however, some protesters caused extensive damage on Sunday.
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