Fireworks and film: this week in Switzerland

The Swiss celebrated their national day this week. The holiday was blessed by glorious sunshine and marked by the traditional speeches of government ministers and other officials around the country.

For about 200,000 people, August 1 began with an increasingly popular brunch at the farm and was rounded off with a barbecue and the lighting of huge bonfires on almost every hill-top and a firework display.

A more solemn element was provided by politicians up and down the country, chief among them the President, Adolf Ogi. In his speeches, he called for the country to play a bigger role in the world while preseving the traditions of community and democracy.

A speech by the finance minister, Kaspar Villiger, was marred by a group of about 150 right-wing extremists who booed and whistled as he spoke about the dangers of individualism and the mistakes of globalisation.

Villiger played down the incident, but Ogi strongly condemned their actions on Thursday. He said it was “disgusting” that the group had disrupted a speech given on the Rütli meadow, a site of almost mythical importance as the birthplace of Switzerland in 1291.

Amid pomp of a very different nature, Switzerland’s biggest film festival opened in Locarno on Wednesday. The weather gods were smiling on the event as it began with an open-air screening of the American film X-Men, although the critics were less impressed.

Turning to business, Switzerland’s two biggest banks, UBS and Credit Suisse, gave the final go-ahead to their SFr2 billion accord reached with Jewish groups two years ago. For the two banks, the settlement ends a long-running dispute over dormant accounts held by Jews during the Nazi era, and frees them from further litigation.

However, many other Swiss companies, including private and cantonal banks, and certain Swiss cantons are still liable to be sued for their conduct at the time.

Adtranz, the German rail technology group with plants in Switzerland, found a new owner this week. Canada’s Bombardier bought the company from DaimlerChrysler for SFr1.21 billion.

It’s not yet clear how the deal will affect plans announced by Adtranz last year to close its two Swiss plants and lay off their 710 workers.

by Malcolm Shearmur