Switzerland Today
Hello from Bern,
Today in Switzerland: parliament gets hot and bothered about EU cohesion payments, an audit office gets tough on back-dated ministerial pension payments, and a climate activist gets landed with a civil disobedience payment.
In the news: civil disobedience, disarmament talks, paternity stats
A court in Lausanne ordered a three-year suspended prison sentence and a fine of CHF1,000 ($1,070) for an activist who took part in unauthorised climate demonstrations. The 30-year-old had – along with others – blocked several bridges and roundabouts in Lausanne city centre in 2019 and 2020. It’s the latest in a string of rulings on cases of civil disobedience relating to climate action. The man plans to appeal.
A new “round” of strategic talks started in Geneva between the US and Russia, two months after Presidents Biden and Putin met in the Swiss city and agreed to reopen channels. The delegations were led by US Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman and Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov, with talks focussed on disarmament. Sherman is to travel to Bern on Friday to launch the first meeting of a new partnership with Switzerland.
A year after Swiss voters approved a legal minimum of two weeks statutory paternity leave, a study has shown how much time off new fathers actually get: for 65% it’s exactly two weeks, for 19% it’s 11-19 days, and for 16% it’s longer. There are big differences across sectors however, with craft work and health the most “stingy”, said workers’ organisation Travail.Suisse, who vowed to continue fighting for better conditions.
Debate of the day: incoherence around cohesion payments
The so-called “cohesion payment” owed by Switzerland to the EU was not a source of cohesion in parliament on Thursday. While the Senate did authorise the CHF1.3 billion payment – money that helps poorer regions of Europe – the debate was tough. Opponents argue that releasing the funds is like playing a suicidal poker hand, while defenders say it’s necessary to fix relations with Brussels after a collapse of talks in May.
But is it really just a choice between “naivety or gesture of appeasement” (Le TempsExternal link)? Is the payment merely another element in “tactical negotiations”, in which Switzerland has to prove itself a “reliable partner” (Radical Liberal politician Matthias Michel)? Does it amount to a “gamble” that will have zero impact on softening up the EU (parliamentarian Thomas Minder)? Is it a calculated risk that “the government is willing to take” (Foreign Minister Ignazio Cassis)?
Or perhaps, just perhaps, said Senator Olivier Français, it doesn’t have to be any of the above: perhaps, just perhaps, Switzerland could release the money “not because it has to, but because it wants to”. Might it not be about negotiation tactics at all, Français wondered, but about funding the social cohesion of the European continent, which Switzerland – borders or not – sits inescapably at the very heart of?
Retiree of the day: audit office wants to avoid repeat of Blocher case
One person who could single-handedly solve many financial problems between Switzerland and the EU is People’s Party patriarch Christoph Blocher. The estimated wealth of the 80-year-old, thanks to his family’s fantastically successful EMS-Chemie company, would cover quite a few cohesion payments, in the process securing Swiss-EU financial relations for decades to come – if he was that way politically inclined…
You might also remember that Blocher was in the news last summer after requesting CHF2.7 million in backdated pension payments related to his time as minister for justice (2003-2007). Although he decided to forego the state pension on leaving government, last year it turned out he had changed his mind: the result was a media furore (“quite cheeky”, wrote the Tages-Anzeiger) and much criticism; Blocher eventually “settled” for a payment of CHF1.1 million.
It also led to an investigation by the Federal Audit Office, the Neue Zürcher Zeitung writes todayExternal link. And according to its new recommendations, late demands such as Blocher’s should not be possible in future: such requests should be “rejected or limited to a certain time”, the office found. However: the federal chancellery still has to decide on implementing this recommendation – so if any former government ministers are subscribed to this briefing, file your claim asap!
Survey of the day: popularised science
Thursday’s 20 Minuten carried the results of a survey about – of course – Covid restrictions. Mentioning Portugal, where 84.88% of the population is vaccinated and measures are being lifted, the paper asked: “is it really necessary to reach an 85% vaccination rate in order to end all restrictions?” Some 27,393 online experts responded: 47% said “yes, absolutely”; 9% were of the (no doubt scientifically-based) opinion that three-quarters of the population was “enough”; 41% said restrictions should be lifted regardless of pesky metrics like vaccination rates; and 3% gave the correct answer, which was “I’m not sure”. Tomorrow’s survey question: “is it actually necessary for the quarterly inflation rate average to drop below 1.24% before central banks consider revising their policy of negative interest rates?”
In compliance with the JTI standards
More: SWI swissinfo.ch certified by the Journalism Trust Initiative
