Salaries, property and happiness make top March stories
Apart from an earthquake and a couple of train accidents, day-to-day concerns like wages, houses and wellbeing were most popular with swissinfo.ch readers last month.
Property woes
Alarm bells rang following an announcement of plans to make it harder for foreigners to buy property in Switzerland. The draft bill includes a proposal that would require citizens of non-EU or EFTA member countries to sell their apartments if they leave Switzerland to live elsewhere.
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Foreigners could suffer under new building restrictions
Money matters
Are you being paid enough? The release of recommended earnings by sector in a country with high salaries and no minimum wage attracted a lot of attention. Canton Zurich’s 800-page publication was quite a hit.
Swiss passport
Are you eligible for a Swiss passport? Zurich’s socialist mayor wants you to apply for one if you are. She sent letters to around 40,000 eligible residents in canton Zurich warning them that the rules for citizenship are going to get tougher from 2018 onwards.
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How to become Swiss
Earthquake scare
An earthquake in early March created shockwaves among swissinfo.ch’s readers despite a lack of significant damage on the ground. The tremor, registering 4.6 on the Richter scale, was of particular interest to our Italian-speaking audience. Four major earthquakes had struck central Italy in mid-January.
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Earthquake, 4.6, hits Switzerland
Train derailment
Switzerland’s well-regarded railways made news for the wrong reason following a derailment near the tourist city of Lucerne. No serious injuries occurred but the station had to be shut down for five days creating cancellations across the entire railway network. A week later, another train went off the rails near the Swiss capital Bern.
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Coping with a derailed train in Lucerne
Swiss innovation
Not everything was a disaster in March. The Swatch Group, known for its watches, announced that it had produced the world’s smallest Bluetooth chip. Measuring just five square millimeters, the chip was designed to increase autonomy and connectivity of connected objects, including smartwatches.
Happy as a Swiss
No reason to be grumpy in Switzerland if you believe the 2017 World Happiness Report which awarded the country fourth place. The 188-page report compiled by the UN says the Alpine nation did well in key areas like caring, freedom, generosity, honesty, health, income and good governance.
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How does Switzerland measure up?
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