Switzerland Today
Greetings from Lausanne!
Here are the latest news and stories from Switzerland on Friday!
In the news: Swiss-EU meeting, Australian embassy reopens and anti-mafia measures
- Switzerland and the European Union have taken a first step towards the resumption of a political dialogue, with the announcement of a high-level meeting in Brussels on November 15.
- Australia will reopen its embassy in the Swiss capital Bern in 2022 after a 30-year break, the two countries announced.
- An investigation is underwayExternal link in Geneva into fraudsters who sold around 400 fake Covid certificates. Staff working for the civil protection service were allegedly involved in the scam to help create the QR codes. The buyers included private bankers and businesspeople.
- Switzerland must step up measures to fight the Italian mafia present in the country more effectively, Nicoletta della Valle, director of the Federal Office of Police told CH Media today.External link She wants better sharing of information between the cantons and government and more prevention.
All-female parliament session opens in Bern
A two-day special session of parliamentopened in BernExternal link on Friday attended by 246 women to mark 50 years of suffrage in Switzerland.
Two hundred of the participants attending the Federal Palace on Friday and Saturday were selected by an online vote by 10,000 women. Aged 17-70, they come from different backgrounds and very few have experience as politicians. The other 46 are former parliamentarians and government ministers.
Topics under discussion include paid and unpaid work, violence against women, health, digitalisation, popular voting rights, agriculture and science. After two days of discussions, the participants are set to adopt declarations that will be presented to parliament in the form of petitions.
Women’s right to vote was submitted for citizens’ approval through a national vote – where only men could cast a ballot. After being rejected the first time in 1959, it finally got accepted by two-thirds of voters in 1971, as women’s suffrage was a condition to allow Switzerland to join the European Convention of Human Rights.
Is Expo 2020 Dubai an absurdity?
After eight years of planning and billions of dollars in spending, the Middle East’s first World Fair has opened in Dubai (aerial photo above). Switzerland is participating of course. The Le Temps newspaperExternal link takes a lengthy, critical look at Expo 2020, Switzerland’s objectives and its spectacular pavilion, which costs CHF16.5 million ($17.7 million).
The pavilion, with its huge funnel-shaped, mirrored front, is certainly the most Instagram-friendly but does not necessarily have the best location, the paper says. Unlike the German or French pavilions, the Swiss building is “cerebral” and “elegant” with sponsors like Schindler and Sprüngli relatively “discreet”.
The journalist reserves most of his criticism for the event itself. “After the delirious flights of fancy in Shanghai in 2010 (size of the pavilions and attendance), five years ago the idea of the Milan fair was quite relevant as it was the topic of food. But this is not the case in Dubai… the petrodollars have won,” wrote Nicolas Dufour.
Organising a world fair in a desert may be an “environmental absurdity”, but the idea of a Dubai Expo is not totally without merit as the Gulf state attracts 21 million visitors a year, he goes on. “But it doesn’t really make sense.”
Switzerland’s strategic goal for Dubai is to put the spotlight on Swiss tourist destinations and Swiss innovation.
“The 192 countries present are courting the local elites in order to show off their scientific and technological power. All of this, however, is taking place in the silence of the desert,” adds Dufour.
Nicolas Bideau, the director of Presence Suisse, the Swiss foreign ministry’s promotional arm, defends the event. He is convinced of the need for such “collective moments”, whether in Geneva or in Dubai. “Of course, having talks about the climate in air-conditioned rooms can, and should, raise questions, but the most important thing is that they take place,” he says.
Swiss worry how Covid-19 is polarising society
One month before Switzerland votes for the second time on the Covid-19 law and the controversial Covid certificate, a wide-ranging survey of the population gives interesting insights into current attitudes about vaccinations and the effects of the pandemic on personal relations.
The Sotomo poll of almost 60,000 residents found that 62% of people support the idea of the Covid certificate, which provides proof of vaccination, recovery or a recent negative test result. There is also great interest in booster jabs, which were recently made available for the over 65s and vulnerable: 58% say they are in favour.
Currently, 63% of the Swiss population have been double jabbed and the ongoing vaccination campaign is sluggish. The poll found that only 6% of respondents – roughly one-quarter of those who are currently not vaccinated – said they would get a jab in the future. The main reason for not getting one is fear of damaging their health, alongside a strong belief in their own natural immune system.
The survey also showed that increasingly polarised attitudes about the pandemic are a major cause for concern.
Privately, almost one in two people say they are scared of getting into conflicts with friends and relatives over the pandemic, twice as many as in previous polls. Some 71% say they have argued with friends and family about Covid health measures and 31% have even ended relationships due to these disputes.
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