Switzerland

The middle class can no longer own a home in Switzerland, according to Martin Neff, chief economist at Raiffeisen Bank.

“Access to home ownership is blocked,” he said in an interview with the NZZ am Sonntag. He is therefore calling for tax incentives to be introduced.

“Switzerland does not encourage home ownership, even though it is a constitutional mandate,” Neff said, adding that in recent years homeowners have even been penalised fiscally because of the rental value.

He advocated the adoption of a qualified right of objection to building projects. “Anyone submitting an appeal must be able to prove a material interest and not just an ideological one,” he said.

Around 10,000 people gathered in Bern on Saturday afternoon for a Pride parade. Pride also concluded the EuroGames 2023 sporting event aimed at the LGBTQ community, which had been taking place in the Swiss capital since Wednesday.

The two-hour procession saw colourfully dressed people, mainly from the LGBTQ (lesbian, gay, bi, trans, queer) community, march for equality.

The procession moved peacefully from Wankdorf, a neighbourhood in the north of Bern, to Parliament Square, where speeches and concerts were planned, the organisers of Bern PrideExternal link said.

The previous time a Pride rally was held in Bern was six years ago, when several thousand people took part.

A lack of resources is making the granting of Schengen visas more difficult. Tour operators are feeling the pinch.

On July 19, Swiss tour operators received a notification from the Swiss embassy in New Delhi saying that, owing to the high volume of visa applications, no more applications could be accepted for group travel by company employees until and including September.

Tour operators have been asked to plan such trips for a later date so that visas can be submitted and issued in time, according to an article in Tamedia newspapers on Saturday.

For many tour operators these trips are among the most profitable in their business. They often involve hundreds of people at a time who, for example, get the trip donated by their bosses as a reward for success. In 2019, for example, 12,000 Chinese received the trip as a present from their company and descended on Switzerland in three groups.

Switzerland faces serious consequences of the shortage of specialists in the health sector, a leading house doctor has warned, with “massive problems” predicted in the next two to three years.

There are no longer enough doctors – either in hospitals or practices – to care for the Swiss population, Philippe Luchsinger, president of the Swiss association for house doctors and paediatricians, said in an interview with Tamedia newspapers on Saturday.

“The public must be prepared for the fact that in future there will be a waiting time of several months for an appointment with a family doctor or a clarification with a specialist,” he said.

Triage will therefore exist, Luchsinger said. “We will have to turn away patients with minor illnesses because we no longer have time for them. As a result, we might miss treating a disease in its early stages.” This would be drastic in the case of cancer, for example, he said.

The US Helsinki Commission has called for sanctions to be imposed against three Swiss citizens in connection with a Russian tax scandal. Among them are former attorney general Michael Lauber and a former federal public prosecutor, Patrick Lamon.

The third Swiss is Vinzenz Schnell, a Russia expert at the Federal Office of Police (Fedpol).

The Office of the Attorney General of Switzerland (OAG) on Saturday rejected the accusations and demands for sanctions.

The Helsinki Commission sent a letter to Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Secretary of the Treasury Janet Yellen asking them to consider the sanctions. This was done at the behest of investor Bill Browder.

According to the letter, dated July 27, the three Swiss nationals are to be sanctioned under the Magnitsky Act. This authorises the US government to sanction individuals who financially profited from the murder in 2009 of Sergei Magnitsky, the lawyer for Hermitage Capital Management in Russia, which Bill Browder co-founded. Magnitsky had uncovered a $230 million (CHF200 million) tax fraud scandal perpetrated by Russian nationals.

The Federal Court has confirmed refusals to grant a Swiss television journalist access to files on Crypto, the now defunct encryption machine firm at the heart of a spying scandal.

The scandal, which came to light in February 2020, involved manipulated encryption devices made by Zug-based firm Crypto which the CIA and the German intelligence agency used to spy on half the world.

At the end of October 2019, the journalist requested access to files from the Federal Archives dating from the 1990s relating to the Crypto probe carried out by the Federal Police at the time. The Federal Intelligence Service (FIS) and then Swiss Export Risk Insurance (SERI) refused her access to three of the four files on grounds that there were overriding public interests at stake.

After the Federal Administrative Court in 2021 and 2022, the Federal Court confirmed the refusals in two rulings published on Friday. It points out that these documents mention by name informants from foreign intelligence services and the countries to which coding machines were delivered. In this respect, Switzerland's interest in maintaining secrecy remains intact, it said.

Many employees see no social utility in their jobs, a University of Zurich study has found. This is true particularly in the finance, sales and management sectors.

This is the first study to “give quantitative support to the relevance of the occupations” in a feeling of pointlessness, says a University of Zurich (UZH) press release.

The late American anthropologist David Graeber theorised about this in his book "Bullshit jobs" (2018), while other researchers have suggested that the profession itself is of little importance and it is much more poor working conditions and a feeling of alienation that cause a feeling of pointlessness. Walo, a sociologist at UZH, wanted to find out for himself.

He analysed data from a survey of 1,811 people in the United States working in 21 different professions. The questions focused in particular on their feeling of "making a positive contribution to society" or "doing useful work". He found that 19% of workers in all occupations answered "never" or "rarely".

From August 1, the motorway tax stickers required in Switzerland will also be available electronically. This will make it easier and more convenient for drivers, but the Swiss government might lose up to CHF17 million ($19.5) in revenue, reports Swiss public television SRF.

As of next month instead of sticking the vignette on their car’s windscreen, people who want to drive in Switzerland will be able to buy and use their motorway sticker online, the Swiss government has announced. The cost will remain the same at CHF40 ($45.9) for the calendar year in question. The main difference is that the sticker is only valid for the car it appears on, while the e-vignette will be linked to the number plate.

This will make it easier for drivers, because anyone who buys a new car in the course of the year no longer needs a new vignette and only one e-vignette will be required for exchangeable number plates instead of two.

But, for the Swiss government this might lead to a “loss of up to CH17.2 million in revenue”, Tabea Rüdin, media spokeswoman for the Federal Office for Customs and Border Security (FOCBS) told SRF. This revenue shortfall corresponds to less than 5% of the total revenue from motorway stickers sales. Last year the government collected a record CHF418 million.

The government expects additional income and savings in the long-term. "When the sticker is sold, a commission of 10% is paid to the sales partners. This is no longer the case with the e-vignette," Rüdin explained.

In addition to this, money will also be saved on printing and dispatch, especially abroad. However, it is still not possible to predict how much will be saved, as it is unclear how many drivers will prefer the e-vignette to the traditional sticker. The latter will be abolished only when its share of total sales falls below 10%.

For now, the government is not planning any automated controls, but customs officers and cantonal police will continue to check for the motorway sticker and the number plates.

The Swiss army will continue helping the fight against forest fires above Bitsch, in southwest Switzerland, until August 8.

According to the Federal Department of Defence and Civil Protection (DDPS), more than one hundred smouldering fires in the deployment zone could reignite at any time, depending on the weather conditions, reports Swiss public broadcaster RTS on Friday. This is why authorities in canton Valais have requested the army’s continued assistance.

The army support includes resources in the air and on the ground. It will continue to deploy a Super Puma helicopter equipped with an infrared camera and two special vehicles equipped with thermal imaging cameras. This surveillance is mainly carried out at night.

Hundreds of people were evacuated from alpine villages earlier this month as the fire consumed an area measuring 100 hectares. They have now been allowed to return home.

Meanwhile, several cantons have announced restrictions on outdoor fires and fireworks in the run-up to Swiss National Day on August 1, because of fire risk. For example, hard-hit canton Valais has the strictest, with a general ban on all activities that might spark a fire. Canton Geneva has banned the sale and private use of fireworks, only allowing firework displays run by professionals.

The remains of a German alpinist who went missing in 1986 have been found on a glacier in the Swiss Alps, according to a statement issued on Thursday by the Valais cantonal police.

The remains were analysed by the forensic medicine department of the Valais Hospital in Sion and researchers found that they belonged to the 38-year-old German alpinist who went missing while hiking near Zermatt. "A DNA comparison established that the remains were those of the climber who had been missing since September 1986," said the Valais police.

The man never came back from his hike and searches proved unsuccessful at the time. But 37 years later, his remains have appeared again, together with his hiking boots and crampons.

As a result of global warming, more and more glaciers are retreating in Switzerland and objects, remains, but also people are being discovered.

This is what happened on July 12 on the Théodule glacier, in southern Switzerland, where some climbers discovered human remains and several pieces of equipment.

Some experts believe that more and more bodies and objects will emerge on Swiss glaciers as the huge ice sheets continue to retreat at an accelerating rate.

Some guests of honour of the 76th edition of the Locarno Film Festival in southern Switzerland will not be attending the event in solidarity with the film industry strikes in Hollywood. However, the organisers assured that the screenings will go ahead as planned.

Scriptwriters, actors and directors have been manning picket lines to demand better contracts in Hollywood, but the effects of the strikes have reached the Alpine nation too. "Some of the personalities expected to receive awards or present films will not be attending the Festival," said the organisers in a statement on Thursday.

Switzerland has joined an international chorus of outrage at a military coup in Niger that has toppled and held captive the African state’s President.

President Mohamed Bazoum is regarded as a key ally in the region in the fight against Islamic extremism.

The military junta, led by the Presidential Guard, seized Bazoum on Wednesday and have claimed power over the country during the coup.

“Switzerland condemns the attempt to seize power by part of the army underway in Niger,” read a Swiss Foreign Ministry tweet on Thursday.

“Switzerland demands the immediate release of the democratically elected President as well as the return to constitutional order and calls for dialogue.”

The United States and the European Union have also made similar demands.

Weeks of heavy rainfall has again increased the risk of a mountainside engulfing the Swiss alpine village of Brienz/Brinzauls.

Around 85 millimetres of rain has fallen on the unstable Bröckelberg massif since the start of the month. A decisive burst of 14 millimetres on Friday accelerated the rate at which a section of the mountain is descending into the valley.

The 85 residents of Brienz/Brinzauls were allowed to return to their homes on June 22 following an evacuation the previous month.

In between times, a huge landslide resulted in 1.5 million cubic meters of rock sliding down the mountainside, narrowly avoiding the village but covering an access road and leaving a significant deposit in front of the school building.

A three square kilometre section of the mountain has been inexorably sliding towards the village at an average rate of more than a metre a year, before picking up speed in recent months.

The local authorities reported the latest worrying findings on Thursday, but there was no mention of another evacuation at this point.

The village in the southwestern Swiss canton of Graubünden is due to receive some relief in the shape of a new drainage tunnel, which was voted through last week.

The local council hopes the federal authorities will foot 90% of the CHF40 million ($46 million) bill.

The level of merger and acquisition (M&A) activity among Swiss small and medium sized companies (SMEs) slowed in the first half of the year due to economic and geopolitical challenges.

The ongoing Ukraine war was cited by consultancy firm Deloitte as one reason for subdued activity.

Rising interest rates have made companies less willing to take on debt to drive expansion while the strong franc made Swiss firms a less attractive proposition for foreign buyers.

Total M&A activity fell from 133 transactions in the first half of 2022 to 109 in the corresponding time frame this year – a fall of 18%.

The strength of the franc has changed the tide of takeover transactions, with more Swiss companies taking the plunge abroad than foreign firms splashing cash in Switzerland.

Swiss firms opted mainly for Europe (67%) or the United States (26%) when expanding their businesses through takeovers or mergers.

“Target companies abroad are attractive to Swiss investors due to the strong Swiss franc, while Swiss companies are becoming more expensive for foreign investors,” stated Deloitte on Thursday.

Takeovers of Swiss industrial companies particularly declined, with the greatest interest from foreign buyers being shown in the IT and healthcare sectors. The majority of buyers were headquartered in neighboring countries.

Deloitte believes M&A activity among SMEs will pick up in the second half of the year as the shock waves of banking collapses in Switzerland and the US die down.

A Deloitte survey of SME financial directors found that 59% were more optimistic about conditions for the rest of the year while only 8% feared worsening conditions.

The measures taken to combat the avian influenza, commonly known as bird flu, have been extended until October 2023 to safeguard domestic poultry from the ongoing threat. Swiss cantons have been tasked to implement local measures in response to the virus, which continues to appear in certain areas.

This previous winter season, protective measures were in force across Switzerland to contain the spread of avian flu. The situation improved during the spring months, leading the Swiss Federal Food Safety and Veterinary Office (FSVO) to lift the nationwide measures. In May, the ministry granted the cantons the authority to impose local measures in case of outbreaks among wild birds. However, avian flu has persisted in canton Zurich, St. Gallen, Thurgau and Vaud. The infection has primarily affected certain wild bird breeding areas.

As the risk of transmission to domestic poultry remains, the FSVO says it is extending the current ordinance until October 15, 2023, it writes in a press release on Wednesday.

However, the responsibility of implementing various local protective measures falls upon the cantonal veterinary offices. The cantonal authorities are to evaluate the risk of the virus spreading, taking into consideration factors such as the behavior of wild birds and their proximity to poultry farms.

With the breeding season coming to a close, wild birds are becoming less mobile, which may potentially reduce the spread of the infection. In the press release, FSVO cautions that remaining vigilant is crucial, and all poultry farmers across Switzerland are urged to promptly report any signs of avian influenza in their animals to a veterinarian. Symptoms to watch for include excessive sickness or death, reduced laying performance or diminished water and feed intake. Additionally, all poultry keepers, whether commercial or private, are required to register their birds with the relevant cantonal authorities.

Looking ahead to the upcoming winter season, the FSVO advises poultry keepers to prepare their enclosures in advance. It is highly likely that domestic poultry in Switzerland will need continued protection from the virus.

Swiss residents are satisfied with their health insurance companies, according to a survey published on Thursday by the comparison service moneyland.ch. The survey shows that it is not the health insurance benefits that are criticised, but instead the premiums.

Out of the 1,538 individuals surveyed, most rated their health insurance company on average with 7.9 out of ten points. This corresponds with a grade "good", according to moneyland.ch. The insured individuals were most satisfied with the friendliness of the employees at the insurance companies, as well as the clarity of the statements and reported being generally satisfied. In French-speaking Switzerland, satisfaction is slightly lower than in German-speaking Switzerland. The comparison service attributes the lower satisfaction to higher premiums in the French-speaking region.

According to the press release, the cost-benefit analysis received the most criticism: the younger the surveyed individual, the less satisfied they reported to be with the cost-benefit of the health insurance premium. The study by moneyland.ch states that this could be attributed to the fact that older people are more likely to receive health insurance benefits than younger people. This could lead to younger people having the impression that they are paying for something they do not need, the study says.

In the survey, the health insurance companies Swica (8.4 points), KPT (8.3 points) as well as Helsana and ÖKK (8.1 points each) scored best. Assura came in last place with 6.9 points.

In the depleted lands of Brazil, Swiss agronomist Ernst Götsch found fertile soil to imagine and test transformative agricultural techniques. His approach, called syntropy, is rapidly being adopted across the South American nation and provides a glimpse to the future of agriculture. For his many followers, the Swiss expatriate has become an icon.

Imagine humans are part of an immense organism. Their job is to make this system run as smoothly as possible. Humans share everything with the other beings in this organism. They all work together and help each other for the benefit of the whole.

How does this sound? Utopian? Well, keep reading.

Imagine the environment is a cooperative and interactive structure where every single being plays a specific role and thus contributes to ensuring that the living space regularly renews itself. There is sufficient food and living space for everyone.

Let’s say goodbye to a mentality based on exploitation and competition. Let’s forget the traditional models of cultivation, production and land use.

Syntropic agriculture is when cultivation becomes a natural part of a constantly regenerating ecosystem. This is the brainchild of Ernst Götsch, the Swiss agronomist who is transforming traditional agriculture into organic farming in Brazil.

Here you can register for it from the 1st of August: https://via.admin.ch/shop/dashboard

The 2023 edition of the queer sporting event gets underway in the Swiss capital on Wednesday. The games will finish on Saturday with Bern’s Pride festival.

The 2,314 athletes who have travelled to Bern will compete in 20 sports over the coming days, including football, swimming and volleyball, organisers said on Wednesday.

Various activities and non-traditional sports are also on the agenda, including “quadball” (formerly known as quidditch, named after the sport featured in the Harry Potter books), “equality dancing” and “self-defence for queers”.

The games take place under the colours of the rainbow flag, organisers say, and aim to celebrate diversity and “provide a safe space for everyone to come together and play sports”. Those not part of the LGBTIQ community can also compete.

In addition to traditional male and female categories, the competitions include a third category for non-binary people.

The event will end on Saturday with BernPride, which will return to the capital after six years having not been held.

The EuroGames have been held annually since 1992 in a different European city. Before Bern this year, Zurich hosted the games in 2000.

An Israeli start-up firm has submitted an application to sell cultured – i.e. lab-grown – meat in Switzerland. It’s the first such application in Europe.

The Aleph Farms start-up announced the application to the Swiss Federal Food Safety and Veterinary Office (FSVO) on Wednesday.

The plan is to sell the “world’s first cultivated beef steaks under the branding of Aleph Cuts” in cooperation with Swiss retail giant Migros, an investor in Aleph Farms since 2019, the Israeli firm said.

Aleph Farms describes itself as a “cellular agriculture company” whose goal is to “grow quality animal products that improve sustainability, food security, and animal welfare in our food systems”.

Its investors include, among others, actor Leonardo DiCaprio.

Cultivated or cultured meat is made by using tissue engineering techniques to culture animal cells in vitro (in a lab setting), removing the need to keep and slaughter living animals.

If Swiss authorities approve the application, it would be a first in Europe. A spokesman for Migros said however that the product would initially be available in upscale restaurants; it’s unlikely to be seen in supermarkets before 2030.

Similar requests have been made in Asia and the United States. The FSVO said the authorisation procedure would take at least several months.

A complaint brought by Michel Platini in November 2021 against Gianni Infantino, head of world football's governing body FIFA, for influence peddling has been transferred to the Swiss justice system.

The public prosecutor’s office in Paris confirmed the step to the AFP news agency on Wednesday. After examination, Platini’s complaint “was the object of an official denunciation lodged with Swiss justice authorities”, it said.

Platini said in a press statement that the decision was “outrageous”.

“I know that Switzerland is not going to look into this: my first complaint filed in Switzerland was shelved without a single investigation taking place, and on absurd grounds,” he wrote.

Platini added that his complaint was about finding those responsible for a “plot” which led to him being charged of fraud – along with former FIFA boss Sepp Blatter – by Swiss justice authorities. Both were cleared of these charges in July 2022.

The complaint in question also targets Marco Villiger, the former legal director and deputy secretary general of Zurich-based FIFA, Platini said.

The former football star has been opposed for some years to Infantino and his entourage, whom he suspects of having ousted him from the race for the FIFA presidency in 2015 by alerting Swiss prosecutors to a suspicious 2011 payment of CHF2 million ($2.32 million). The payment was made by FIFA on the orders of then president Sepp Blatter, without written justification.

Platini’s lawyer said on Wednesday that the offence of influence peddling “does not exist in Swiss law”, and that the decision to send Platini’s complaint to Bern was “legally incomprehensible and morally confusing”.

A Swiss drone-flying association has said it managed to locate and rescue double the amount of fawns this year compared to 2022.

Each spring, many deer hide their new-born in long grass, where they are safer from natural predators. However, this puts them danger of farmers mowing their meadows.

The “Saving Fawns” association thus brings together volunteer drone pilots to fly over the fields with thermal cameras to locate the low-lying animals.

This year’s rescue operations were notably boosted by new influxes of trained pilots, the group said on Tuesday. Between January and April, numbers of volunteers increased by a third, which allowed the group to widen the area surveyed from 68 to 86 hectares.

On average around 1,500 fawns fall victim to mowers each year, but the number of unreported cases is likely to be significantly higher, the association said.

Roughly 100,000 people in Switzerland fly drones. Just over half of them have so far complied with new rules brought in this year to register with authorities.

The number of company insolvencies in Switzerland rose 22% in the first six months of the year compared to the same period in 2021.

Some 581 construction firms went bankrupt between January and the end of June, out of 2,822 companies in all sectors, according to research group Dunn & Bradstreet.

The financial and service sector industries saw one of the largest percentage rises in bankruptcies with a 31% increase in businesses going bust. Some 30% more hotels and restaurants also went out of business.

“Bankruptcies increased significantly in all major sectors,” said Dunn & Bradstreet on Tuesday, highlighting a large number of service industry failures.

Amid uncertain economic conditions and a rise in interest rates, which makes it more expensive to get bank loans, the rate of start-ups declined compared to last year.

New additions to the Swiss company register fell 4% in the first half of 2022, particularly among financial start-ups that saw 27% fewer new firms than in the first six months of 2021.

Many people want to remain close to their loved ones after death. This is also true for members of the LGBTQ community. Soon they will have their own burial ground in Zurich.

When you enter the Sihlfeld Cemetery, you are greeted by a tree-lined boulevard. All that can be heard is the rustling of branches swaying in the wind and the chirping of birds. It is easy to forget one is within the noisy city centre of Zurich, Switzerland’s largest city.

In a small corner of the largest public cemetery in the city, which covers an area of 280,000 square metres, a section for LGBTQ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and questioning and/or queer) people is being carved out. Backers of the project see this as an act of affirmation rather than segretation.

The Rainbow Rest project was launched in February last year by several queer organisations keen to provide a final resting place for people from the LGBTQ community. The first in Switzerland

Sihlfeld’s graveyard for LGBTQ people is the first of its kind in Switzerland.