GENEVA — While President Trump plans to welcome UFC fighters to the White House lawn on Sunday night, a far more volatile confrontation may unfold in Geneva, where roughly 50,000 demonstrators are expected to march against the G7 summit in Switzerland’s second-largest city.
Much of Geneva was effectively locked down on Sunday. Shops were shuttered, many storefronts were boarded up, and fencing was installed along key streets to deter unrest. Police vans lined intersections as officers in riot gear prepared for the large-scale protest.
Trump is set to arrive at the G7 on Monday. Like many of the other leaders attending, he is expected to land at Geneva’s airport before heading across the border to the summit venue in nearby Evian, France.
In an effort to keep demonstrators away from the lakeside resort town where Trump and other heads of state will be staying, French and Swiss officials closed 27 border crossings on Sunday.
Security was also highly visible around Lake Geneva. Military helicopters swept overhead near the city’s iconic Jet d’Eau — one of the tallest fountains in the world — while police boats moved through the water below.
Sunday’s protest, which required official permits, is being organized by the “No-G7” coalition, a group made up of more than 60 associations, labor unions and left-wing organizations that say they are opposing “fascism and imperialism.”
“The only good system is a sound system,” read one of many signs the groups pasted around Geneva.
There is concern Sunday’s 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.
“We 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,” Francoise Nyffeler, spokesperson for the NoG7 coalition, told the Associated Press.
“The 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,” she added.
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.
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.
The G7 brings together the leaders of the world’s largest developed economies — Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United States.
French President Emmanuel Macron, who is the summit host, also invited several other leaders, including from India and several Middle East nations.
The three-day summit, which begins Monday, is the first such gathering of leaders since Trump launched the Iran war.
The start was postponed for a day so Trump could mark his 80th birthday Sunday at the White House, where the UFC will stage seven bouts in an octagon built on the South Lawn.
