Tens of thousands of anti-G7 demonstrators brought chaos to the streets of Geneva on Sunday, on the eve of the summit in the nearby French spa town of Évian-les-Bains, in scenes that revived dark memories of the devastating 2003 G8 riots. What began as a colourful but peaceful march under the banner of the “No-G7” coalition – an alliance of more than sixty left-wing groups, trade unions and civic associations – deteriorated into hours of running battles, arson and widespread vandalism. Masked protesters ripped cobblestones from the streets, hurled bottles and fireworks at police, and smashed the windows of United Nations buildings, banks and a Tesla showroom, before setting the electric car ablaze. Swiss police responded with volleys of tear gas that sent panicked families fleeing and left a pall of acrid smoke hanging over the city centre.

The Swiss authorities had been bracing for trouble. Memories of the 2003 G8 summit – when anti-capitalist rioters caused millions of dollars in damage across Geneva – loomed large. In an almost surreal precaution, luxury boutiques including Cartier and Dior, supermarket chains and even university buildings were boarded up with thousands of square metres of plywood. An estimated 16,000 security personnel, including 4,000 Swiss soldiers, were deployed, and Geneva’s streets were criss-crossed with barriers and police vans. Yet even this colossal security operation could not contain the fury of a protest movement that, as organisers declared, sought to denounce “fascism, imperialism and the economic hegemony” of the Group of Seven industrialised democracies.

The march drew a disparate coalition: environmentalists, feminists, pro-Palestinian activists and anti-capitalist youth. Many were united less by a common programme than by a shared enemy – what one slogan called “the meeting of the rich”. The presence of US President Donald Trump, a reviled figure among the European left, added bite, and some students from Geneva’s music conservatory marked the occasion with obscene chants directed at the American leader. But it was the targeting of a Tesla that provided the day’s most potent image. Elon Musk, the carmaker’s owner and a Trump adviser, had the previous week become the world’s first trillionaire, a milestone that ignited fresh debate over grotesque wealth inequality. For protesters, setting his product on fire in the shadow of the UN was a symbolic blow against both corporate greed and the multilateral institutions they see as its handmaiden.

Viewed from Washington, the violence is likely to be dismissed as the spasms of a radical fringe, and Trump’s team has shown little appetite for engaging with such critiques. Yet in European capitals, there is deeper unease. The scale and fury of the Geneva protests – which organisers claim reached 50,000, though police put the number at around 20,000 – suggest a widening chasm between the G7’s agenda and a significant, vocal segment of public opinion. As the world’s most industrialised leaders gather on the shores of Lake Geneva to discuss trade, security and climate, they do so under the cloud of a resurgent and increasingly radical anti-globalisation movement that appears to have learned from the past and is ready to confront power with Molotov cocktails and smashed plate glass.

With the three-day summit due to open on Monday, French authorities in Évian were breathing a cautious sigh of relief that the worst of the unrest was contained across the Swiss border. Yet the events in Geneva serve as a stark reminder that the compact between global élites and ordinary citizens remains deeply fractured. The boarded-up shop fronts will come down, but the anger they were meant to shield against shows few signs of abating.