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GENEVA – President Trump is hosting UFC fighters on the White House lawn Sunday night but the real battle may be on the streets of Geneva, where 50,000 people are expected to take to the streets of Switzerland’s second largest city to protest the G7 summit.
Geneva essentially shut down on Sunday. Businesses closed and boarded up their windows. Anti-protester wire fencing was raised around the streets. And police vans took their places on corners, with officers wearing riot gear in preparation.
Trump arrives at the G7 on Monday. He, like most world leaders, will arrive at Geneva’s airport before traveling to the summit location in nearby Evian, France.
French and Swiss authorities shut down 27 border crossings on Sunday to keep the protesters away from the small spa-town on the shores of Lake Geneva where Trump and the other world leaders will stay.
Military helicopters flew over Lake Geneva, circling its famous Jet d’Eau, one of the tallest fountains in the world. Police boats patrolled the waters.
The protesters, who had to get permits for Sunday’s event, is a “No-G7” coalition of more than 60 associations, unions and left-wing groups that denounce “fascism and imperialism”.
“The only good system is a sound system,” read one of many signs the groups pasted around Geneva.
There is concern Sunday’s event could be a repeat of 2003 when violent protesters smashed windows and caused thousands in damage on the sidelines of the G8, when Russia was a member of the group.
“We are very afraid of the policy and the politics of Mr. Trump and also of the other leaders of the G7, because they are fighting, making war all over the place,” Francoise Nyffeler, spokesperson for the NoG7 coalition, told the Associated Press.
“The planet is in danger and we are very scared about it and we want to protest and say that the people of the world are against their policies,” she added.
One protest already took place on Friday, when a flotilla of around 20 boats parked off the shore of Evian on Lake Geneva on Saturday, displaying anti-G7 and pro-Palestinian banners.
Given the determination of the groups and the number of world leaders who will be in the area, both French and Swiss military members have been deployed to back up local police.
The G7 brings together the leaders of the world’s largest developed economies — Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United States.
French President Emmanuel Macron, who is the summit host, also invited several other leaders, including from India and several Middle East nations.
The three-day summit, which begins Monday, is the first such gathering of leaders since Trump launched the Iran war.
The start was postponed for a day so Trump could mark his 80th birthday Sunday at the White House, where the UFC will stage seven bouts in an octagon built on the South Lawn.
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