Since Saturday, a collective has been occupying the old hostel and pizzeria in Etagnières in the Gros-de-Vaud region. The owner and his henchmen came, armed, in order to evict us.
“We will kill you”.
This Thursday 8 july at 15:00, the owner accompanied by a dozen acolytes armed with pickaxes, sledgehammers, a giant bolt cutter and a grinder attacked the Auberge d’Etagnières, which we have been occupying since Saturday, with the firm intention of evicting us and doing us harm. “We are going to kill you” they repeated several times. The owner and his men broke some of the windows on the first floor and broke down the front door. Barricaded urgently on the top floor, we repeatedly reminded them of the numerous violations of Swiss law they were committing, encouraged them to file a complaint and to go through legal channels. The police had already noticed our presence on Monday evening and warned the owner of the squatting procedures. Instead of complying with the legal framework by filing a complaint, he decided to take justice into his own hands. In this country, the minority of landlords think they are above the law, since it is of course forbidden for the landlord to take justice into his own hands, although we are protected by the law of the lease.
The owners are Bello SA, a construction company owned by Luigi and David Bello. The latter also owns the pizzeria Le 14 in Gland.
Not the first time
As a reminder, this house has already been squatted in 2020 by a collective, which was kicked out the same way and had to leave the premises hastily in the face of the violence of the owners who also came armed. They had broken windows of the pizzeria. Once the collective had left, they put into practice the old anti-squat litany of sabotage of a living space by removing a dozen windows, cutting the electric cables and damaging the water supply. Left abandoned since the restaurant closed three years ago, the building, classified 4 in the heritage, is at the moment only the shadow of itself.
Police complicity
We call on the cantonal police to immediately stop their intimidation game. Three patrols are currently circulating in the village of Etagnières in order to prevent our numerous supporters from approaching the house. Their job in this context is rather to order the owners to comply with the laws to prevent them from carrying out their death threats.
We need support!
We reaffirm our will to stay in this building until the beginning of the works, which should take years. We refuse to submit to their intimidating practices and oppose the voluntary destruction of housing by developers who only want to be maintained and lived in.
All support is welcome. You can contact us at the following e-mail address: onestpassortidelauberge [at] protonmail [dot] com and at the following telephone number: 077 975 78 17.
We still hold the building, we won’t give up!
Some squats in Switzerland: https://radar.squat.net/en/groups/country/CH/squated/squat
Groups (social center, collective, squat) in Switzerland: https://radar.squat.net/en/groups/country/CH
Events in Switzerland: https://radar.squat.net/en/events/country/CH
