Swiss perspectives in 10 languages

Swiss Senate saves Pro Helvetia budget

Culture Minister Elisabeth Baume-Schneider
Culture Minister Elisabeth Baume-Schneider Keystone-SDA

The Swiss Senate has spared Pro Helvetia a funding cut by voting to retain its CHF187 million budget. The foundation that promotes Swiss culture abroad was facing a CHF6.5 million budget cut, mainly because of “problematic” activities in Russia.

+ Get the most important news from Switzerland in your inbox

On Monday, the Senate rejected a proposal from Switzerland’s other parliamentary chamber, the House of Representatives, to reduce funding between 2025 and 2028.

Pro Helvetia has indicated it will close its Moscow office, which is at the centre of the political row over its foreign activities.

+ Government to invest CHF1bn into Swiss culture

The proposed budget cut is “ill-timed because we don’t know exactly what it will apply to,” said Senator Mathilde Crevoisier Crelier. This would jeopardise the foundation’s activities abroad, she said.

Culture Minister Elisabeth Baume-Schneider had warned that a budget cut would not be trivial even if it would not jeopardise the survival of the foundation.

Translated from French by DeepL/mga

This news story has been written and carefully fact-checked by an external editorial team. At SWI swissinfo.ch we select the most relevant news for an international audience and use automatic translation tools such as DeepL to translate it into English. Providing you with automatically translated news gives us the time to write more in-depth articles.

If you want to know more about how we work, have a look here, if you want to learn more about how we use technology, click here, and if you have feedback on this news story please write to english@swissinfo.ch.

Popular Stories

Most Discussed

News

Trees can live for thousands of years

More

Swiss-led study unravels tree growth and longevity

This content was published on Trees reach old age using different strategies. This is shown by a Swiss-led research team with over 100 scientists from all over the world in a new study, for which they analyzed trees that live to be over three thousand years old.

Read more: Swiss-led study unravels tree growth and longevity

In compliance with the JTI standards

More: SWI swissinfo.ch certified by the Journalism Trust Initiative

You can find an overview of ongoing debates with our journalists here . Please join us!

If you want to start a conversation about a topic raised in this article or want to report factual errors, email us at english@swissinfo.ch.

SWI swissinfo.ch - a branch of Swiss Broadcasting Corporation SRG SSR

SWI swissinfo.ch - a branch of Swiss Broadcasting Corporation SRG SSR