Some 2,500 protest in Zurich against housing situation

Demonstrators marched through Zurich in hot temperatures on Saturday afternoon. Keystone-SDA

Around 2,500 people marched in Zurich on Saturday afternoon against what they called “a city of the rich”. They criticised rising rents, lease terminations, and neighbourhood gentrification.

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The demonstration set off from the Hardplatz square at around 2.30 pm on Saturday. It was led by a float symbolically decorated with a shark – the so-called “Immo-Hai” (“Real-estate shark”).

The protest, which was authorised, was held under the motto “Against a city of the rich”. The route ran via Hardbrücke, Escher-Wyss-Platz, Limmatplatz and Langstrasse to Kasernenwiese.

A reporter from the Keystone-SDA news agency estimated around 2,500 people, many carrying flags and banners with slogans such as “Crimetower instead of Primetower”, “Housing is a basic right for all” and “Build up the Gold Coast” (a nod to a wealthy district by Lake Zurich).

Along the route, masked demonstrators spray-painted slogans and messages, including on the Hardbrücke bridge, from where some threw water balloons at the Primetower and set off pyrotechnics.

‘Displacement’

The march stopped repeatedly for speeches. In each case, the prices at which apartments are currently rented in the respective places were pointed out. The crowd responded with a collective booing.

Speakers repeatedly denounced rising rents, mass terminations of leases and the decrease in affordable housing. They called the densely populated area of Altstetten a “displacement zone”.

The organisers, an alliance of groups, collectives, affected parties and residents, complained that more and more apartments were being let at much higher prices after renovations, while long-term tenants were being forced to leave their neighbourhoods.

Politics also criticised

The criticism was not only directed at property firms and investors, but also at politicians. “We have nothing to do with the various parties,” writes the alliance on its website. It says politicians use housing protests to make a name for themselves. “Despite the red-green [left] government, nothing has changed for years,” it says.

Zurich police piloted the demonstration and maintained a strong presence along the route. Traffic in the city centre was disrupted for several hours, as were several tram and bus lines.

Adapted from German by DeepL/dos

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