Switzerland Today

Greetings from Bern!

To what extent should the Swiss government help its citizens who have retired abroad but who run into difficulties? We examine a politically sensitive topic. We also look at other news and stories from Switzerland on Wednesday.

Keystone/Peter Klaunzer

In the news:  Parliament has thrown out two proposals to grant foreign residents in Switzerland full voting rights.

• The House of Representatives today voted against a plan to give foreigners who have lived in Switzerland for at least five years the right to take part in votes and elections and be elected to office at a national level. A clear majority also threw out a separate proposal to grant full political rights at a local level.
• Swiss International Air Lines (SWISS) is planning to reduce the number of flights in Europe over the next few months as a result of staff shortages. SWISS said about 2% of the scheduled flights – and about 10,000 passengers – to destinations in neighbouring Germany and Poland as well as to Britain and Los Angeles would be affected. It’s the second time in two months that SWISS has announced flight cancellations due to personnel shortages.
• The National Museum in Zurich is paying tribute to Anne Frank and her family. In an exhibitionExternal link it traces the connection between the Frank family, the distribution of Anne’s diary and Switzerland, where her father settled after surviving the Auschwitz concentration camp. The exhibition, which opens tomorrow and runs until November 6, illustrates the life of the Frank family through objects, photos and documents. It opens a window on daily life, as well as on refugee policy and refugee aid, in Switzerland during the Second World War.

lotuswell.ch

Swiss embassies and consulates are having to deal with more and more problems from the expatriate community that “exceed the remit of consular duties”, as they put it diplomatically.

A government campaign now aims to remind Swiss citizens who live abroad of the principle of self-responsibility. “The foreign ministry is doing its best to help, but there are limits.” said Johannes Matyassy, head of the ministry’s consular directorate, on several occasions during the Covid-19 pandemic, often citing the case of someone demanding the Swiss government send a helicopter to a remote island near Venezuela to repatriate them.

Thailand poses a special challenge. Some 9,600 Swiss live in Thailand (pictured), two-thirds of whom are men who emigrated when they retired. What’s special about this relatively recent demographic phenomenon is that they often end up in hospital. As long as these pensioners – some of whom live in specialised old people’s homes – can enjoy themselves, everything’s fine. “But then they get ill,” says a diplomat. “They can’t go home [to Switzerland] – their pension is too small – and they don’t want to go to hospital. So they expect the consulate to fix it.”

In a recent development, Swiss pensioners now need health insurance to keep their residence permit. This could result in elderly Swiss who can’t afford health insurance being forced to return to Switzerland and becoming a burden on the welfare system. “That’s true,” Matyassy admitted in an interview with SWI swissinfo.ch. “But it really can’t be the case that Switzerland pays the health insurance of its citizens who live in Thailand. People choose to live in countries where they can live well on a Swiss pension. But if it doesn’t work out, should the state really step in?”

Keystone / Justin Lane

Apple has conceded defeat in the EU’s Court of Justice in its dispute over the advertising slogan “Think different” with Swiss watchmaker Swatch.

The Luxembourg-based court today rejected an appeal by the US iPhone company against a previous decision by the EU Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO). The latter had ruled that the Swiss watchmaker could protect the slogan “Tick different” as a trademark. Apple considered the slogan too similar to its own slogan, which it first used in an advertising campaign in 1997. Switzerland’s Federal Administrative court ruled in 2019External link that the Apple slogan was not sufficiently well known in the region.

The case then went to the Court of Justice, which has now dismissed Apple’s claims that the original ruling was flawed. “Contrary to what Apple claims, the Board of Appeal’s conclusion as to the distinctiveness of the contested marks is not contradicted by a body of evidence aimed at proving that they have been put to genuine use,” it said in its summaryExternal link today. “While it is true that the items of evidence of genuine use filed with EUIPO include numerous press articles noting the success of the advertising campaign entitled ‘Think different’ at the time of its launch in 1997, those press articles predate the relevant period by over ten years.”