By Cecile Mantovani and Olivia Le Poidevin
GENEVA, June 11 (Reuters) – France plays host to a Group of Seven summit next week but it is shopkeepers in neighbouring Switzerland who have already boarded up many businesses ahead of an anti-G7 protest expected to roll through Geneva this weekend.
Security officials in Geneva outlined their plans on Thursday in preparation for around 50,000 people expected for the protest on Sunday in Geneva. The plans include the closure and control of 27 border crossings between France and Switzerland from Friday evening, officials said.
G7 leaders will land in the city – on the western French-speaking side of Switzerland – before being transported across the border to the summit venue in the French town of Evian-les-Bains.
Switzerland is mobilising 4,000 soldiers inside its territory to ensure security during the three-day meeting of the leaders of Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United States, alongside the European Union, the army said last week. France said it was deploying 8,000 police officers for the summit in Evian beginning on Monday.
Scores of shops across Geneva have been boarded up over fears of damage during the planned anti-G7 protest.
Damien Gall, owner of carpentry company Espace, said it has installed more than 2,000 square metres of wooden panels for businesses to protect their premises.
Taxi driver Lamine Lasbet said the preparations for the protest were having a “catastrophic impact” on business.
“We’ll stay at home, I won’t lie. So it’s three or four days without working,” Lasbet said.
ECONOMIC FALLOUT
Some Geneva residents raised concern about the fallout from the summit.
“Geneva isn’t in France, so the problem is spilling over into another country,” said Eric Affolter, a souvenir store owner, recalling how properties were damaged in 2013 when a G8 summit was held in Evian as protesters clashed with police on Geneva’s left bank.
Carole-Anne Kast, a senior local authority official, said
the canton of Geneva would likely have to spend about 20 million Swiss francs ($25.01 million) on security costs.
She said authorities have tried to mitigate the risks of violence and property damage.
($1 = 0.7996 Swiss francs)
(Reporting by Olivia Le Poidevin; Editing by Emelia Sithole-Matarise)
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