Renovate Switzerland blocks Bellerivestrasse in Zurich

Friday morning, just before 8:00 a.m.: On Bellerivestrasse in Zurich, of all times, rush hour traffic comes to a halt when thousands of cars pass through the bottleneck in front of Bellevue. Activists from the organization Renovate Switzerland block the street at Utoquai. Two people glued themselves to the ground.

The Zurich city police are on site a short time later, as they write in a statement. Police officers are asking the activists to end the blockade and open the area to traffic. The two people who were stuck are released from the roadway by the paramedics. All of the protesters, two women and five men, are taken to a police station for further clarification and reported for various crimes. After a little more than half an hour, the traffic is rolling again.

Renovate Switzerland is the same organization that blocked the roadway of the Zurich Hardbrücke last Saturday. The most active had also stuck to the asphalt.

According to its own statements, Renovate Switzerland sees itself as part of an international network of civil resistance as it says on the website. Ordinary citizens are involved, who want to draw attention to their concerns with road blockades. The Federal Council must order society to be mobilized to thermally renovate buildings – as the first logical step in phasing out fossil fuels and initiating ecological change.

Neither the rally on Hardbrücke nor that on Bellerivestrasse were approved. This is nothing unusual in Zurich: unauthorized rallies take place here regularly. The best-known example is the “Critical Mass”, a bicycle demonstration that is always held on the last Friday of the month. Hundreds of cyclists then bring traffic to a standstill. An evaluation requested by the FDP showed that up to 20,000 commuters are affected.

Unauthorized events usually require the intervention of the police. The Zurich city police do not provide any information on how many police officers were on duty at Utoquai on Friday morning. She also keeps a low profile when it comes to the costs of such an operation.

By the beginning of October, 71 demonstrations and 166 rallies had taken place in Zurich. 28 demonstrations and 15 rallies were not approved.

Unauthorized rallies cause high costs

Stephan Iten sits on the Zurich municipal council for the SVP. As a member of the parliamentary security commission, he estimates the costs of an eviction to be around CHF 100,000. Any damage to property is not included in this estimate.

Iten and the SVP are bothered that taxpayers have to pay for these costs. The Young SVP of the City of Zurich recently launched the “Anti-Chaotic Initiative”. Among other things, she demands that organizers of illegal rallies or events be asked to pay in the future.

The regular, unauthorized rallies are a thorn in Stephan Iten’s side. He says: “With such actions, you only annoy people and otherwise achieve nothing.” Road blockades like the one on Friday morning at Utoquai would not only impede private traffic, but also cause great costs for businesses. That can’t be the goal, no matter what ideology you’re pursuing. Iten recommends the activists: “Go into politics and tackle the problems there.”

The city police quickly broke up the unauthorized demonstrations by Renovate Switzerland on both Bellerivestrasse and Hardbrücke. For Stephan Iten, this is the only right way. He is satisfied with the use of the police. The next rally should follow soon.