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They want to make life miserable for SUV drivers. At night, environmental activists sneak into the posh neighborhoods and turn on the valves of the off-road vehicles. Their accusation: SUVs emit too much CO₂. Now the police are looking for the group that calls itself the “Tyre Extinguishers”.
Some drivers find them extremely annoying. The activists from “Tyre Extinguishers” sneak up on off-road vehicles and let air out of tires – to save the climate. What’s the point – other than a report for the perpetrators and trouble for the car owners? In Zurich we looked for the “Lüftler” and found them.
Secret meeting place with masked people
The meeting point remains secret until the end. An activist picks up the Rundschau camera team at a train station and leads them to a park in a residential area on Zürichberg. A group of six climate activists meets there at midnight. The masked people have set themselves the goal of letting the air out of the tires of as many off-road vehicles as possible.
“We are doing this because politics has failed,” says Gian, an activist whose real name is not that. You want to remain anonymous. «SUVs are harmful to the climate and people. They are unnecessary and dangerous. That’s why it’s legitimate to react like that.” A woman shows us leaflets with a letter of confession and lenses in a plastic bag. She will place the lenses on screwed-on tire valves. When the valve cap is closed, the lens presses on the valve – the air comes out.
Activist: “That feels good”
The group goes looking for off-road vehicles. We follow what is happening from a distance. The masked people quickly find what they are looking for. One of the activists is fiddling with valves, another is making grease. They shut down 75 cars that night. “That feels good,” says an activist afterwards. “I was allowed to express that it bothers me when people drive cars like that.” We ask you whether it doesn’t matter to you that affected drivers, for example, can’t get to work or can only get to work late. The answer: “The matter is more important.”
The police have no understanding for such actions. “For us, this is not a prank,” says Judith Hödl, spokeswoman for the Zurich city police. “In such cases, we investigate property damage and coercion.” She advises those injured to file a complaint. “This is the only way we can find out more about patterns and procedures. That helps with the investigation.”
SUV driver is annoyed: “Ecofascism”
That’s what Peter Künzler did. A tire was also flattened on his SUV. Künzler is a teacher and his classes were canceled all morning. “You think of eco-fascism – that’s an overarching delusion,” he complains. “They only cause trouble and economic damage.”
The activists of “Tyre Extinguishers” (in German: “tire extinguisher”) pursue the tactic of civil disobedience. The movement is active in Australia, the USA and large parts of Europe.
For the injured SUV driver Peter Künzler, it is incomprehensible that he cannot directly file a complaint against “Tyre Extinguishers” with the police. The group confessed to the crime in a letter of responsibility that was stuck to his windshield, says Künzler. “That’s not possible,” says police spokeswoman Hödl. “If we cannot attribute the crime to anyone, we will investigate unknown people.”
There are also groups in Basel that flatten the tires of SUVs at night. There they also travel in neighborhoods where expensive cars are parked on the street.