American flags torched, riot police clash with protesters ahead of Trump Davos arrival

Violent protests erupted in several Swiss cities as American flags were burned and riot police clashed with demonstrators ahead of President Trump’s arrival in Davos, Switzerland, for the World Economic Forum.

Trump is scheduled to arrive Wednesday and is expected to deliver a speech at the annual gathering of global political leaders and corporate executives.

His visit comes amid heightened tensions with European leaders after Trump doubled down on his push to acquire Greenland for U.S. national security reasons and declined to rule out military options.

The Davos forum, held in eastern Switzerland, is one of the world’s most high-profile economic summits, bringing together heads of state, CEOs, bankers and policymakers to discuss global trade, security and geopolitics.

Around 300 protesters marched through Davos Jan. 19 to oppose both the forum and Trump’s planned appearance.

Chanting slogans and holding banners reading "Trump not welcome," demonstrators accused Swiss authorities of legitimizing what they described as authoritarian and plutocratic politics by hosting the U.S. president.

*** Officers in full riot gear deployed water cannons, chemical irritants and rubber bullets and said they were targeted with fireworks.

The outlet also reported a police statement said "paint bags were thrown at the facades and shop windows were smashed on the corner of Bahnhofstrasse and Uraniastrasse", with the amount of property damage unknown.

Similar demonstrations were held elsewhere, including in Bern, where a protest was broken up as police sealed off the city center.

Yes, more or less. The protests are organized by Swiss Young Socialists (Social Democratic Party of Switzerland youth branch, aka Young Socialists Switzerland aka Jungsozialist*innen Schweiz JUSO), led by Mirjam Hostetmann and Nathalie Ruoss. Early JUSO members predating World War I included future Soviet operative Willi Munzenberg, a comrade of Lenin.

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https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jungsozialist*innen_Schweiz

Als erster eidgenössischer Sekretär der Jungsozialisten in Bern spielte Willi Münzenberg eine zentrale Rolle in der sozialdemokratischen Jugendbewegung. I. .
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Willi_M%C3%BCnzenberg

He subsequently travelled through Germany in search of work, eventually reaching Zürich in Switzerland in 1910, where he stayed for the following eight years. Whilst there he initially gravitated towards anarchist politics, and studied the works of Peter Kropotkin and Mikhail Bakunin. He subsequently shifted back towards social democracy.[5] When the SPD split in 1914 between the moderate Majority SPD (MSPD) and the radical Independent SPD (USPD) over the issue of World War I, Münzenberg sided with the USPD.[citation needed] In 1915, having already become leader of the Swiss socialist youth movement, he was elected secretary of the International Union of Socialist Youth Organizations, and was elected to the executive of the Social Democratic Party of Switzerland the following year.[5] The same year he was also appointed editor of the publication of the International, Jugend-Internationale based in Zurich.[5]

During World War I, Münzenberg often visited Vladimir Lenin at his home in Zürich, Switzerland. His activism would eventually come to the attention of the Swiss authorities, who imprisoned him twice before deporting him to Germany in November 1918.[5] After arriving in Germany, Münzenberg joined the Spartacus League, and soon thereafter became one of the earliest members of the KPD.[6] He was initially associated with the party’s left wing,[4] and at the party’s founding congress in December 1918 he acted as spokesman for the opposition to Rosa Luxemburg and Paul Levi’s proposal for the party to contest the 1919 German federal election.[5] Münzenberg subsequently played a leading role in the Spartacist uprising in Stuttgart, leading a demonstration alongside Clara Zetkin and Edwin Hoernle against the city’s Social Democratic government which declared it overthrown in favour of a Soviet.[5] Following the failure of the uprising he was arrested and spent five months in prison before being tried alongside the other leaders of the Stuttgart Spartacist rebellion, which ended in their acquittal. Shortly afterwards he became chairman of the state KPD in Württemberg.[5]

Portrait by Isaak Brodsky, 1920
In November 1919, Münzenberg convened a congress of the Socialist Youth International which voted to affiliate to the Comintern as the Young Communist International, with Münzenberg remaining at its head.[5] He was also the delegate of the YCI to the 2nd World Congress of the Communist International in 1920.[7] However, he was removed from his leadership role with the YCI the following year.[8]
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https://www.pbs.org/newshour/world/davos-elite-world-economic-forum-set-to-open-with-pro-business-trump-set-to-attend-and-inequality-on-the-rise

. . .Critics of WEF, and Trump, take to the streets
As usual, protesters rallied over the weekend in and near Davos ahead of the event. Hundreds of marchers scaled an Alpine road up to the town on Saturday behind a banner in German that read “No Profit from War” and alongside a truck that bore a sign: World Economic Failure.

Companies like Microsoft, India’s Tata Consultancy, social media titan TikTok and cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike joined governments from countries such as Nigeria, Qatar, Ukraine and the United States — a USA House is making a debut this year — to set up shop on the Davos Promenade to promote their services, products and national economies.

Davos storekeepers rent out their premises so that forum participants can have the prime real estate for the week.

Critics have long accused the annual meeting of generating more rhetoric than results, and they see Trump’s return as sign of the disconnect between haves and have-nots. Some say Swiss leaders who support the event and flock to Davos too are adding to the problem.

“It is worrying how Swiss politicians are courting warmongers and their profiteers in Davos,” said Mirjam Hostetmann, president of Switzerland’s Young Socialists, who have led protests against the event. “The WEF will never bring peace, but will only fuel escalation.”

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https://www.presstv.ir/Detail/2026/01/18/762525/Davos-Forum-anti-Trump-protest

. . .”We feel like it is unacceptable for the World Economics Forum, but also of Switzerland in general, to host fascists like Donald Trump, because that also kind of legitimizes their actions,” explains Nathalie Ruoss, Vice president of the Young Socialists Switzerland. . .

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