Switzerland Today

Greetings from Bern,

Zermatt is full of surprises. The last time I was there an avalanche covered the train track – the only way in and out – and a two-day break turned into a six-day adventure. The mountain resort is back in the headlines following the forced closure by police of a restaurant whose owners had refused to check customers’ Covid certificates.

© Keystone / Christian Beutler

In the News:  The number of vegans in Switzerland has doubled within a year, trade association Swissveg announced today, World Vegan Day.

• While 0.3% of the population last year said they completely renounced animal products, this figure has risen to 0.6% in 2021External link. The proportion of vegetarians increased from 3.4% to 4.1%. This corresponds to around 38,000 vegans and over 250,000 vegetarians. Women are twice as likely to follow a plant-based diet than men.  
• They won’t be happy by other news today that the price of flour is set to increase as a result of hail and the wet summer. The grain harvest is expected to be a third smaller than last year and of inferior qualityExternal link. What’s more, millers will have to pay about 10% more for grain, and price rises could soon be passed on to consumers.
• Europe’s oldest municipal ombudsman’s office has turned 50. The Ombudsman’s Office of the City of Zurich has been offering free mediation between citizens of Zurich and the city administration since November 1, 1971. It can also be used by employees of the administration and serves as a reporting office for whistleblowing.

Keystone / Laurent Gillieron

The Swiss media continue to buzz today following the detention of three restaurant owners in Zermatt, a popular mountain resort at the foot of the Matterhorn, who had defied a closure order for refusing to check patrons’ Covid-19 passes and kept serving.

Police swept into the 19^th-century Walliserkanne restaurant yesterday and sealed it off. They said the three family members had refused to close the establishment despite the authorities’ efforts to engage in dialogue and ignored several warnings to respect pandemic health measures. They had reportedly transformed a stack of concrete blocks that police had used to close the front entrance into a makeshift bar and let patrons enter from the back.

The showdown, which according to some sourcesExternal link was far from peaceful, points to renewed tensions in Switzerland over government measures aimed to fight the coronavirus pandemic that some people claim are treading on civil liberties. Today the youth chapter of the right-wing Swiss People’s Party condemned what they considered “excessive police force” at the restaurant.

Switzerland, like some other European countries, has taken a number of steps to fight the pandemic, such as the requirement for restaurant managers to request proof of vaccination, recent recovery from the illness or current negative tests before serving patrons.

The rich Alpine country of about 8.6 million people, whose ski slopes and winter sports are a key draw for tourists, has recently reported an average of about 1,300 new cases of Covid-19 a day, up from around 870 in mid-October, though average daily deaths have been under ten since early April. In total more than 10,000 people have died in Switzerland in connection with Covid-19.

swissinfo.ch

As a UN climate summit starts in Scotland, the first video in our two-part series shows how climate change is affecting the Swiss landscape, economy and people. Part 2 tomorrow!