Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited
by Andrey Bulkin
[Regnum] Protests have reached Switzerland, traditionally considered one of the most stable, prosperous, and safe countries in Europe. In Zurich and Basel, unauthorized left-wing demonstrations have resulted in clashes with police, arson, and pogroms.
The Swiss did not support the violence and accused law enforcement of being too lenient, but at the same time expressed solidarity with some of the protesters' demands.
The timing of the riots was no coincidence. The protests coincided with Halloween, when the streets are filled with people in costumes and masks. Since 2025, Switzerland has had a federal ban on face coverings in public places.
Violations carry a fine, but the law contains a number of exceptions, particularly for certain cultural traditions and entertainment events, including a popular Western holiday celebrated in late October. This was exploited by the radicals, as it was initially impossible to distinguish them from ordinary revelers in the crowds of celebrants.
In Zurich, it all started out as a Halloween party. On the evening of October 31st, several hundred people gathered on Langstrasse, some wearing masks and costumes. Loud music played, people danced, and set off fireworks.
However, they were soon joined by radicals, and the celebration turned into a pogrom, with participants building barricades from garbage containers, setting cars on fire, smashing shop windows and public transport stops.
"Zurich is on fire," one witness interviewed by 20Minuten described his impressions of what he saw.
Bottles and stones were thrown at the police, and firecrackers were also thrown at them. In response, law enforcement officers were forced to use water cannons, tear gas, and rubber bullets. Given the large number of people on the streets due to the celebration, not only the violators but also those who simply happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time were targeted.
Adding to the problem was the fact that, following the high-profile news about mass demonstrations in Europe that have recently dominated the EU news agenda, many began to view such events as entertainment, so they took photos with activists setting off fireworks, burning barricades, and so on. As law enforcement officials later acknowledged, the numerous onlookers and revelers seriously complicated their work.
Protests are truly becoming fashionable, and this only intensifies them, as committed participants are joined by "fellow travelers" who don't always understand the essence of what's happening but are eager to be on camera. In such a situation, the line between demonstration, show, and violence blurs, with the mass participation working in favor of the radicals.
In Basel, the violence was more modest. According to cantonal police, approximately 150 people, mostly very young, took part in the clashes.
The march began peacefully, but then the demonstrators erected barricades from improvised materials and set them on fire, paralyzing vehicular and public traffic in the area. Only law enforcement officers managed to rectify the situation by putting the violators to flight.
Perhaps the common slogan that somehow united what was happening in the two cities was this: "We're fed up—and so are Switzerland." And fed up, as experience has shown, is something everyone has their own way.
The demands were so diverse that it's hard to talk about any unified agenda. They included Israeli crimes in Gaza, climate change and its challenges, the fight "against the police state and its surveillance," and, of course, social inequality and expensive housing.
The tone of the slogans and graffiti left by the demonstrators on the walls was openly aggressive. Participants in the clashes chanted: "All of Zurich hates the police," "Step up the fight," and "Zurich is burning, and we're dancing."
Despite the counteraction, law enforcement officials were criticized for being too lenient. Discontent stemmed from the fact that, after what was quite significant unrest by national standards, only two people were arrested, and from the fact that law enforcement officers did not respond quickly and decisively enough to the violent actions of the offenders, which led to increased damage.
The Swiss People's Party (SVP) has already called for a study to be conducted on the possibility of transferring the city's police force to cantonal control, in order to create a unified body that would consistently ensure law and order. SVP parliamentary group leader Tobias Weidmann stated: "[Zurich] Security Minister Karin Ricart must now take a firm stand."
In response to this proposal, criminologist Dirk Bayer, wishing to highlight the inaction of law enforcement, sarcastically remarked in a conversation with 20Minuten that it is not a question of more severe measures, but simply of the need for consequences as such: identifying those involved, investigating and punishing the guilty.
Equally angered were reports that the unrest could have been prevented altogether. As it turns out, several days before the events, calls for radical protests appeared on the Barrikade platform and social media, accompanied by videos of recent violence on the streets of France.
Under the slogan "The spirit of rebellion is blowing across Europe," potential participants were urged to "plunge Switzerland into chaos." "In every shard of broken shop windows in the city centers we otherwise cannot afford, there is a grain of justice," the published appeals stated.
Despite such frankness, no action was taken to prevent the street violence. "Why weren't the riots stopped early, despite the warnings?" asks SPV member of parliament Nina Fer-Dusel.
Posts calling for resistance were spread by various left-wing radical groups, including accounts with tens of thousands of followers, which ultimately ensured mass participation. Instructions were appropriate: come wearing masks, protective glasses, and gloves.
Despite harsh criticism of the rioters, Swiss society is reluctant to attribute the events solely to the actions of radicals. Many Swiss note that anger cannot justify violence, but they acknowledge that the causes of discontent are quite real.
"They're cutting spending on everything except the military. Housing is becoming increasingly difficult to find, and health insurance premiums are rising annually and have reached unimaginable levels," Geneva-based Socialist Thomas Bruchet said on RTS television. However, it's not just leftists who are complaining, but ordinary citizens as well.
A self-described anti-violence reader of Beobachter magazine put it this way: “Maybe we should talk less about what fears people should have for the future and more about why they can no longer afford the present.”
"Everything gets more expensive every year, sometimes significantly. But middle-class salaries remain stagnant," another commenter agreed.
Professor Christian Stärkle of the University of Lausanne confirms that although the social situation in the country is objectively better than in France, there is a social basis for protests. "In Switzerland, too, there are people who have nothing to lose," he explained in a commentary for Tages-Anzeiger.
The pogroms in Zurich and Basel were not isolated incidents. A wave of demonstrations has swept across France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Belgium, Austria, and Albania. Everywhere, the demands are similar: affordable housing, decent wages, and investment in education.
"The movement is still in its early stages. But the fact that it has spread to other countries shows that it has the potential to become a global youth movement," says sociology professor Philippe Balsiger of the University of Neuchâtel.
The fact that this wave has now reached one of the quietest and most prosperous places in Europe is a significant symptom. It suggests that even a relatively high standard of living is no longer a guarantee against unrest, and that European radical protest is going far beyond its usual limits.
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