Switzerland Today

Hello from Bern,

With the government expected to decide on new Covid measures tomorrow, there’s little else people can think about here than the virus. But there's other news today including who and what was behind the mysterious social media accounts of a fictitious Swiss biologist.

© Keystone / Gaetan Bally

In the News: Parliament keeps all options open to curb the pandemic; Swiss banks fined for colluding in a spot trading cartel

• All options are on the table to get the pandemic under control. The House of Representatives called for the return of free Covid tests with one politician saying on Thursday, “it’s better to test than do nothing”. Others are talking about curfews, some about mask mandates, and others want vaccination obligations (see more on this below). With another 9,000 or so cases reported today, the public is in suspense about what the government will announce tomorrow.
• The European Commission slapped massive fines on five banks, including UBS and Credit Suisse, for colluding in a foreign exchange spot trading cartel. The Commission said foreign exchange traders from the banks “exchanged sensitive information and trading plans, and occasionally coordinated their trading strategies through an online professional chatroom called Sterling Lads”. The total fine came to €344 million (CHF359 million). Credit Suisse, the only one of the five banks not to cooperate with the procedure, met with a penalty of €83.3 million.
• On Thursday, the Senate agreed to extend the moratorium on Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) in agriculture until 2025 – the fourth extension since the Swiss voted for the ban in 2005. This time though the Senate raised the possibility of an exclusion from the ban for gene editing. The debate will continue on this with some politicians saying we need more time to study these technologies, and others saying Switzerland risks falling behind other countries.
• Meta, the parent company of Facebook, has dismantled a social media operation, orchestrated from China, which used the account of a fictitious Swiss biologist named Wilson Edwards to fuel tensions with the United States. Messages from the accounts were cited widely by Chinese media and shared by other fictitious and some real accounts. Facebook’s investigation cited “the work of a multi-pronged, largely unsuccessful influence operation that originated in China”. More than 200 accounts involved in the operation have been deleted.

Keystone / Laurent Gillieron

Everyone’s angry about vaccinations, even the vaccinated.

Many thought it would never be mentioned in the halls of parliament, let alone be a real topic of discussion. But never say never. With the surge in coronavirus cases, some parliamentarians say it’s time to consider mandatory vaccinations. The vaccination rate has stagnated so getting above 80% before the next variant arrives seems like a long shot.

Austria and Germany have already put such a proposal on the table, and ethics experts aren’t totally against the idea, at least according to an interviewExternal link in Der Bund today. But what they suggest isn’t physically forcing people to get vaccinated; rather it’s making the unvaccinated pay.

Ethics expert Nikolaus Knoepffler tells the paper that we’ve learned that incentives and a toothless call to do one’s duty don’t increase the vaccination rate. If people don’t want to get vaccinated, they should contribute to treatment costs or forego intensive care in the event of Covid. The big problem is that this could be counter-productive, as it angers people who are already opposed to vaccination.

But the vaccinated aren’t any happierExternal link. Le Temps reported today about the exasperation of some vaccinated people in the country, who, after following all the rules and government advice, now face fear of infection, travel restrictions, quarantines and the potential closure of businesses. Were we overly optimistic about vaccines? Why are we being punished for following the rules? These are the questions going through many people’s minds. “The anger of vaccinated Swiss citizens is also mounting against the promises of the vaccine itself,” writes Le Temps.

Keystone / Jean-christophe Bott

Should Swiss beer be protected like Swiss wine? Canton Vaud says not so fast.

The owners of restaurants and bars in canton Vaud will not be required to offer craft beer from the canton on their menus. Today the cantonal government voted down a proposal that would require anyone selling alcohol to offer locally made beer – a requirement that already exists for local wine.

The local government said that the production of beer and wine couldn’t be compared and that such a restriction would thwart economic freedom. “While the area of production of the raw material necessary to make wine is clearly established, the origin of the various components of a beer is much more difficult to establish,” the government said.

Knowing, for example, that barley and hops are generally imported, “the precise qualification of what is meant by craft beer in Vaud is lacking,” it added. The socialist party member who put forward the proposal in 2019 said that the 112 breweries in the canton have struggled in the face of big international groups like Carlsberg and Heineken.

Keystone / Georgios Kefalas

And the top Swiss city for expats? Basel

Not a huge surprise that Roger Federer’s hometown and the base for many multinational companies was the top-ranking Swiss city in this year’s Expat City Ranking. It was the only Swiss city in the top ten. Like Zurich and Geneva, Basel scores well when it comes to transportation, safety and stability but it loses points for the high cost of living. Which city topped the list? Madrid, Dubai, or Kuala Lumpur? You’ll have to read my colleague Tom Stephens’ report to find out.