Record number of demos held in Swiss capital

Protestors in Bern take part in a demonstration on March 5 against the Russian invasion of Ukraine Anthony Anex

Bern was the scene of more demonstrations this year than ever before. On average more than one rally was held a day.

By the end of November alone 363 rallies had been counted, city police authorities told the Swiss News Agency Keystone-SDA on Wednesday. This surpassed the previous record of 360 demos in 2019. During the following two pandemic years numbers were somewhat lower.

This year the war in Ukraine caused the largest demonstration in Bern: on February 26 up to 20,000 people protested against the Russian war of aggression.

Up to 10,000 people took part in the women’s strike demonstration on June 14.

There were a particularly large number of rallies last year on the situation in Iran. Several thousand people attended the national Iran demonstration in front of parliament on November 5.

The police record all authorised demonstrations as well as small rallies, spontaneous rallies and unauthorised demonstrations, provided the city was informed of them. The largest unauthorised demonstration was the “anti-fascist evening walk” in October, which had a good 1,000 participants.