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Bern experienced the worst riding school riots in years. This is known about the “instant riots”.
What happened? Masked people tried to reach a roadblock next to the riding school on Sunday night. They then attacked the approaching police officers with stones, fireworks, lasers and bottles. Eleven law enforcement officers were injured in the attacks and three had to be taken to hospital. “The emergency services were attacked very specifically,” says Manuel Willi, head of the Bern regional police, to SRF.
How serious is the incident? There hasn’t been such an outbreak of violence at the riding school for years. However, the security situation in the Schützenmatte/Reitschule area has recently deteriorated overall. Acts of violence and robberies occur regularly. However, the excess of violence with the attacks on the police forces, the “instant riots”, could not have been predicted. Although there have been similar incidents already or in 2016, as archive images show.
Legend:
There have been similar attacks at the riding school in the past: in 2016, left-wing autonomous groups also set up barricades and attacked police forces.
Keystone
What is the motive? The police cannot yet say anything about the attacker’s motive. The “Sebastian Lotzer reference group” comments in an article on the left-wing autonomous platform “Barrikade.info”. In addition to criticism of capitalism and the system, they address the latest attack. “It has proven to be a good idea for us to choose our moments of confrontation based on strategic considerations and not to focus on now meaningless days or pacified demonstrations,” it says. They then greet ex-RAF terrorist Daniela Klette in the statement.
What does the city of Bern say? The mayor of Bern, Alec von Graffenried, spoke to SRF about the riots for the first time on Monday morning. “This was a kind of organized attack from the riding school, this is a very bad incident and absolutely intolerable,” he says. A “debriefing” of the incident will now be carried out together with the riding school in order to be able to classify the matter.
What does the riding school say? On Monday afternoon, the riding school indirectly distanced itself from the rioters. The riding school welcomes actions that are directed against racism or other forms of oppression. But: “The reason for the campaign, the content of which we only found information on barrikade.info on Sunday, was understood neither by us operators nor by our guests on Saturday evening,” says a statement from the media group Riding school.
Legend:
Left-wing autonomous groups tried to block the road with containers.
X/ag_bern
How does politics react? The bourgeois camp in particular strongly condemns the acts. SVP city councilor Alexander Feuz, for example, is calling for consequences against the riding school: “We must not tolerate this logical basis and command post (sic) for criminal acts,” writes Feuz on X. Adrian Wüthrich, former SP national councilor and president of the Bern Police Association, comments also on This is nonsensical! I strongly condemn violence against police forces.”
Legend:
Fist-sized stones were thrown at police forces in 2017.
Archive photo Keystone
What do the police say? Police chief Manuel Willi says the perpetrators deliberately tried to injure police forces. Unknown people threw fist-sized stones against normal patrols without protective equipment. Attacks of this intensity have not been seen in years. The police are now appealing for images and video footage of the riots in order to find the perpetrators.