Switzerland Today
Dear Swiss Abroad,
This year I was invited to just one wedding, even though several of my friends are in unmarried relationships. Many of them, it seems, prefer to steer well clear of the institution of marriage. They are following the current trend, as the latest figures confirm. Yet one thing about marriage has remained unchanged for decades.
Warm regards from Bern.
In Switzerland, people are marrying less frequently and later in life. A new analysis of the data shows just how much marriage has changed – and what has remained the same over the decades.
Are you married? In Switzerland, tying the knot is a big topic this year, at least at the ballot box, where voters will be deciding on the ‘marriage penalty’ for the second time at the end of November.
The debate about marriage is always an emotional one, yet its significance is waning. This is shown by data analysed by Tamedia newspapers. While just under half the population is still married today, many people are now marrying later, not marrying at all, or getting divorced. Today, 41% of all marriages end in divorce; in the 1960s, the figure was 12%.
In the 1950s, almost everyone in Switzerland married before their 50th birthday. Today, the proportion is less than half that. The average age at marriage has also risen: women now marry for the first time at an average age of 30.7, and men at 32.4 – in the mid-1980s, these figures were 26 and 29 respectively. However, one thing has remained constant over the decades: the man is usually the older partner in a marriage – by around two to three years.
As of today, the Swiss People’s Party has a second candidate for the vacant seat on the Federal Council. Why is Switzerland’s largest party finding it so difficult to find a successor to Guy Parmelin?
A year ago, the Centre Party struggled to find successors for its outgoing minister Viola Amherd. Now the much larger Swiss People’s Party is facing the same problem, as reports across the country suggest.
The Tages-Anzeiger has identified 98 Swiss People’s Party politicians who might be suitable candidates: members of the House of Representatives, the Senate and cantonal governments. Yet there has been no rush to stand. Following Céline Amaudruz from Geneva, Rémy Wyssmann, a parliamentarian from Solothurn, has now also announced his candidacy. Wyssmann has been a parliamentarian since 2023 and made a name for himself as a fierce critic of the federal government’s Covid-19 policy.
Why is it so difficult for the Swiss People’s Party to find suitable candidates? According to political scientist Sarah Bütikofer, right-wing parties find it harder to put forward candidates who can secure majority support beyond their own ranks. Added to this is the fact that the position of government minister has lost some of its appeal due to the heavy workload and constant public scrutiny. The cantonal branches of the Swiss People’s Party have until Friday to submit nominations.
Hackers have stolen data belonging to thousands of civil servants – including intelligence service staff.
The notorious hacker group Akira has carried out a targeted attack on an IT company in canton Basel Country, stealing data from several pension funds in the process. These include Publica, the pension fund for federal employees.
According to the Tages-Anzeiger, well over 100,000 current and former federal employees are affected, ranging from cleaning and administrative staff to former government ministers. The stolen data includes home addresses, social insurance numbers, salary details and, in some cases, bank details. Intelligence service staff are also among those affected; they can now potentially be identified and located using this data. A task force from the State Secretariat for Security Policy has described the situation as a “threat to life and limb”.
The hacker group is now demanding a ransom and threatening to publish or sell the stolen data if its demands are not met. The first fraudulent attempts to make contact in connection with the Publica breach have already been detected. The Office of the Attorney General is conducting a criminal investigation.
While Swiss wine is under pressure at home, a Vaud-based winemaker is successfully selling his wines in Asia. He now has his sights set on a new market.
In Switzerland, not only are people getting married less often, but they are also drinking less wine. Local winemakers must also compete with foreign producers. The Vaud-based winemaker Cyril Séverin has turned the tables: he sells a third of his wines abroad.
To achieve this, he made significant investments 20 years ago, including setting up a wine trading company in Japan, as reported by Swiss public broadcaster SRF. This is now paying off: he sends 8,000 bottles to Japan every year. There, he gets CHF28 ($34) for a bottle of Chasselas – compared to CHF20 in Switzerland. He also exports his wine to China, Hong Kong and Indonesia. Thanks to free trade agreements, this is a profitable venture for Séverin.
American tourists who visit his vineyard in Lutry, overlooking Lake Geneva, often express regret that they cannot drink his wines back home. However, high import duties would make the wine too expensive in the US. But Séverin has his sights set on another country across the Atlantic: Brazil. He hopes that the Mercosur trade agreement will lead to lower import duties there.
Translated from German, sub-edited by Alexandra MV Andrist/dos
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