Swiss climate activists block vehicles near Gotthard tunnel

The climate activists' action on the A2 motorway did not disrupt traffic, as there was a 16-km long traffic jam. KEYSTONE/GAETAN BALLY

Around ten climate activists from the Renovate Switzerland movement briefly blocked the A2 motorway at Wassen, canton Uri, near the northern entrance of the Gotthard tunnel. Some stuck themselves to the road before being removed by police.

The blockade took place near the Dieden motorway rest area, near Wassen, the Uri cantonal police told news agency Keystone-SDA. Renovate announced its action at around midday on X, stating that two activists had stuck themselves to the road surface.

According to police, the activists were quickly removed. The action did not disrupt traffic, as at midday there was a 16km traffic jam at the northern entrance to the tunnel heading towards the southern canton of Ticino.

+ Swiss climate activists continue to protest, but change ‘is not easy’

On X, Renovate Switzerland denounced the “betrayal” and “abandonment” of climate protection policies. In a petition that it is inviting people to sign, the group is calling on the Swiss government to ban the sale of new cars powered by fossil fuels from 2025 and to invest “massively” in non-polluting forms of mobility and public transport.

Renovate also criticises the fact that 96% of vehicles on the approaches to the Gotthard tunnel, where traffic jams are frequent, run on fossil fuels.

Translated from French by DeepL/gw

How we work

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.

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 [e-mail].