Tens of thousands attend climate demo in Swiss capital
According to organisers, tens of thousands of people took part in the national climate demonstration in the city of Bern on Saturday. They called for immediate climate protection.
This content was published on
2 minutes
Keystone-SDA
The unusually long demonstration started at 2:30pm with a slight delay not far from Bern train station, as a reporter from the Keystone-SDA news agency reported. The destination was the Bundesplatz. The organisers spoke of over 60,000 participants.
Participants formed several demo blocks on topics such as health, agriculture and outdoor activities. They wanted to illustrate that the effects of the climate crisis are already being felt in all areas of society.
The main demand of the rally was climate justice. The climate crisis is further exacerbating the inequalities that already exist at the global level, it said in a call. The countries of the Global North caused the crisis, the worst consequences of which would first affect the people in the South.
“The forest is burning, the Arctic is melting, politics is sleeping” could be read on one of the many handwritten banners. “If the climate were a bank, we would have saved it long ago,” was written elsewhere on a piece of cardboard.
The Swiss Climate Alliance called for the demonstration. According to its own information, it includes over 140 organisations from the areas of environment, development, churches, youth, trade unions and consumer protection.
This news story has been written and carefully fact-checked by an external editorial team. At SWI swissinfo.ch we select the most relevant news for an international audience and use automatic translation tools such as DeepL to translate it into English. Providing you with automatically translated news gives us the time to write more in-depth articles. You can find them here.
If you want to know more about how we work, have a look here, and if you have feedback on this news story please write to english@swissinfo.ch.
External Content
Your subscription could not be saved. Please try again.
Almost finished… We need to confirm your email address. To complete the subscription process, please click the link in the email we just sent you.
Macron will attend Swiss summit on Ukraine, says Zelensky
This content was published on
French President Emmanuel Macron will attend the peace conference on Ukraine at the Swiss Bürgenstock resort next month, according to Volodymyr Zelensky.
Top politician tells ‘corrupt’ Eurovision to stay away from Bern
This content was published on
A social media post by the president of Bern’s cantonal government critical of the Eurovision Song Contest has created waves and will be discussed in the cantonal parliament.
Swiss centre records over 200 victims of human trafficking
This content was published on
Last year 317 people took part in a protection programme run by the Specialist Unit for Trafficking in Women and Women’s Migration (FIZ) in German-speaking Switzerland.
This content was published on
The Geneva-based International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and partners are opening a field hospital in southern Gaza on Tuesday.
Lack of smartphone sustainability in Switzerland hits environment
This content was published on
Almost half of all Swiss citizens hang on to their old smartphones, tablets and laptops, according to the Federal Statistical Office.
Police clear out pro-Palestinian students protesting in Geneva
This content was published on
The police intervened early on Tuesday to dislodge pro-Palestinian students who had been occupying the University of Geneva for almost a week.
New gel developed in Zurich renders alcohol harmless
This content was published on
A newly developed gel composed of whey proteins breaks down alcohol in the body and could reduce its harmful and intoxicating effects in humans.
Pro-Palestine protests extend to Basel and Fribourg universities
This content was published on
Demonstrators called for an academic boycott of all Israeli institutions and disassociation with Chaim Weizmann, the first Israeli president.
You can find an overview of ongoing debates with our journalists here . Please join us!
If you want to start a conversation about a topic raised in this article or want to report factual errors, email us at english@swissinfo.ch.