Switzerland Today

Greetings from Bern,

I’ll be spending an hour or so this evening – as I and millions of other Swiss do four times a year – studying and voting on various issues at federal, cantonal and local level. The results of the big votes, including whether same-sex couples can get married, will start trickling in Sunday lunchtime. We’ll bring you everything you need to know as it happens!  

Keystone / Peter Schneider

In the News: It kicked off again in Bern last night between police and demonstrators who disagreed with the government’s Covid restrictions.

• Some 800 people took part in the unauthorised protest, fewer than the 3,000-4,000 who turned up outside parliament last week. They chanted “freedom” as they marched through Bern’s Old Town, full of late-night shoppers, but when they tried to break through a barrier outside parliament no-nonsense riot police got out the water cannon and rubber bullets.
• Separately, the government said today it would end free Covid tests for everyone after October 10, extending a previous deadline by ten days. After October 10, it plans to finance free testing until the end of November only for people who have received a first dose of vaccine and have not yet received their Covid certificate. The extensions for free testing are likely to cost CHF280 million ($303 million).
• It’s that time when Swiss ambassadors play musical chairs. Several repostings were announced todayExternal link, with notable ones including Jürg Burri, who moves from Warsaw to Beijing (as if China’s not enough, his beat also covers North Korea and Mongolia). Georg Steiner, currently head of mission in Nigeria, will become Switzerland’s man in Pakistan and Afghanistan, based in Islamabad.

Copyright 2021 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.

A potential lurch to the left in Germany’s election on Sunday – and the reintroduction of a wealth tax and a tightening of inheritance tax – is scaring millionaires into moving assets into Switzerland, according to bankers and tax lawyers.

No country has more offshore assets than Switzerland and inflows accelerated in 2020, to the benefit of big banks such as UBS, Credit Suisse and Julius Bär. Data from the Bank for International Settlements show deposits of German households and companies at banks in Switzerland climbed almost $5 billion to $37.5 billion in the first quarter of 2021, and this does not include shares, bonds or financial products.

However, simply transferring cash to a Swiss bank account no longer helps. Under immense international pressure, the Swiss now share such account data with tax authorities in clients’ home countries.

“Switzerland as a financial centre is characterised by stability, legal security and a high level of financial competence. However, it does not offer any protection against tax evasion,” said a spokesperson for the State Secretariat for International Financial Matters.

© Keystone / Gaetan Bally

Interior Minister Alain Berset was a guest at the 17th International Architecture Exhibition in Venice last night and found himself defending Switzerland’s record on the number of Afghan refugees it has said it will accept (280).

Switzerland “certainly can’t be accused of indifference”, he said in an interviewExternal link with the Tagblatt newspaper. “The government has taken steps and increased its humanitarian aid. In any case, the upcoming political decisions will be taken in close international cooperation.”

Switzerland’s entry at the exhibitionExternal link examines the significance of borders on the lives of people who live near the Swiss border and migrants. “When you visit the exhibition, you understand that borders are also a living space and a place to meet people,” Berset said. “The border is part of everyday life in our country. Every day, more than two million people cross a border. We have to deal with this particular circumstance, perhaps even more so today than in the past.”