Switzerland Today
Happy New Year from Bern!
Here are the latest news and stories from Switzerland on Monday.
In the News: Organisers of New Year’s Eve parties say they are satisfied this year despite anti-pandemic measures.
- Fewer events were held, but those that took place were relatively well attended, Alexander Bücheli from the Swiss Club and Bar Commission told Swiss public radio, SRFExternal link, this morning. Longer queues were caused by staff checking that guests had been vaccinated or had recovered from Covid-19 and had also passed a test before admission. The picture above was taken in a Zurich nightclub in the early hours of January 1.
- The Covid pandemic has hit Zurich Airport hard. But CEO Stephan Widrig says there are sufficient financial resources to get through the crisis. However, having lost almost CHF70 million in 2020, “we’ll certainly have another loss on our books in 2021”, he said today. Widrig reckoned unrestricted worldwide travel wouldn’t return before 2025.
- Shared e-scooters and e-bikes can have a negative effect on the climate, a Swiss study has found. This is because such services generally replace trips with normal bicycles rather than cars. Many big cities, including Zurich, have schemes to rent and share e-bikes and e-scooters to relieve urban traffic and help reduce CO2 emissions, but until now it hasn’t been clear what effect these micro-mobility solutions have on the climate.
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Ruth Roduner, the daughter of Paul Grüninger, a policeman who was punished for saving hundreds of Jews during the Second World War, has died aged 100.
She had always campaigned for the rehabilitation of her father, who was abandoned by Switzerland when the authorities found out what he had done. He was ostracised and, having had his pension taken from him, died in poverty in 1972.
Roduner (pictured at the unveiling of a plaque for her father in 2005) was also the founding president of the Paul Grüninger FoundationExternal link, which honours his memory and awards a prize “for special humanity and courage in the spirit of Paul Grüninger”.
Roduner’s father was a policeman in St Gallen near the Austrian border and forged paperwork so Jews and other refugees could enter Switzerland illegally. In 1939, once his actions were discovered, he was dismissed from service. A year later he was convicted of breach of official duties and forgery. It was only in 1995 that his name was cleared by a St Gallen court.
In 1971 the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial foundation in Israel honoured GrüningerExternal link as one of the Righteous Among the Nations.
The Swiss Federation of Jewish Communities regretted on its websiteExternal link that its relationship with the foundation hadn’t begun until 2014. It apologised to Roduner for this and eventually awarded her a lifetime monthly allowance from the memorial fund as a token of its gratitude. The federation mourned the loss of an “impressive and committed personality” who “carried on her father’s story and rendered outstanding services to the memory of his humane and exemplary actions, so that later generations can also learn from these events”.
Are you up to date on the new laws in Switzerland?
From cutting through red tape for people who want to change their name and gender to getting fairer deals for online shoppers, it’s that time of year when the Swiss government makes its New Year’s legal resolutions.
Other legal tweaks this year affect domestic abuse – anyone affected by domestic violence, threats or stalking can now request that the aggressor be made to wear an electronic armband or ankle device – and tax breaks for naughty companies. Critics are unimpressed by the latter, arguing it will reward bad behaviour.
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