Switzerland Today

Hello from Bern,

Reading today’s stories from Switzerland, one would be forgiven for thinking Geneva was the centre of the world – for all the right reasons, and some “mysterious” ones too.

This content was published on January 13, 2022 - 18:00

5 minutes

Reporter specialised in Swiss foreign affairs, with a side hustle as a sub-editor in the English Department. Previously my focus was on disinformation and fact-checks, which I still produce occasionally.

Ignazio Cassis in Vienna — Keystone/Roland Schlager

In the news: Cassis in Vienna, Maurer the taxman, and a reward for smart urban planning

It’s a tradition that Switzerland’s newly minted president did not fail to honour: today Ignazio Cassis went to Austria, the first country all Swiss presidents visit during their term in office. Traditions, though, are not meant to be exciting: Cassis’ counterpart, Alexander Van der Bellen, praised the “excellent cooperation” between the two countries. Cassis did throw in a good word about his country for a broader audience, saying the Alpine nation remained a reliable partner for the European Union despite current strains in bilateral relations.
Meanwhile finance minister Ueli Maurer announcedExternal link Switzerland would implement the minimum corporate tax rate agreed by the OECD and G20 starting in 2024. A temporary ordinance would form the basis for the 15% tax rate for companies with a turnover exceeding €750 million. This will be followed by a constitutional amendment to enshrine the changes into law – a move that is likely to come before voters for approval.
Now for the Geneva segment of the Briefing: The Swiss Heritage Society has bestowed its annual Wakker prize for high-quality urban development on the municipality of Meyrin, part of the Geneva agglomeration. Home to 26,000 residents as well as two important institutions in the region – the European nuclear research centre CERN and the Geneva airport – Meyrin in just two generations has morphed from an agricultural village into a “lively community” that prizes sustainability. Iconic buildings include the Nouvelle Cité, a large housing complex built in the 1960s that has been sensitively rejuvenated for 21^st century living.

A Swiss haven for the former Kazakh first family?

The brief appearance of a luxury Airbus A320 from Almaty, Kazakhstan on the Geneva airport tarmac on January 5, just as deadly protests were engulfing the Central Asian country, has raised more questions than answers, the Le Temps newspaper reportsExternal link. The same plane made no less than 19 flights to Geneva in 2021, according to a flight tracking system managed by residents living close to the airport.

Who was the plane carrying to Geneva via Moscow last week? According to a Geneva-based Kazakh journalist Le Temps spoke to, it could have been the children and grand-children of the former president Nursultan Nazarbayev, whose statue was toppled by demonstrators voicing anger at rising fuel prices and discontent with the autocratic state. The Nazarbayev family have two villas on Lake Geneva and, according to the paper, “never had a reason to complain about a Swiss welcome”.

Switzerland, the third-largest foreign investor in Kazakhstan, had been conspicuous in its silence on events in the country until Wednesday, when secretary of state Livia Leu revealed she’d spoken to the Kazakh foreign minister. “Switzerland calls for a proportionate response” to the unrest, she tweeted. The President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev had ordered security forces to fire on protesters. Tokayev himself has a history in Geneva: he was director-general of the UN headquarters there from 2011-2013, Le Tempsreminds usExternal link.

Switzerland’s good relations with Kazakhstan should not get in the way of criticising the authorities’ heavy-handed response to protests – quite the opposite, one Swiss parliamentarian told the paper.

American flag on Geneva building — Copyright 2021 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved

A mystery illness in – you guessed it – Geneva

The A320’s appearance at the airport is not the only mystery causing speculation in Geneva. The peculiar “Havana syndrome”, first reported among American diplomats in the Cuban capital in 2016, has made its way to Switzerland via the international city. According to the Wall Street JournalExternal link on Thursday, at least three officials at the US consulate in Geneva were suspected of suffering from the syndrome. One of them was reportedly evacuated to the US for treatment. The cases surfaced last summer. One case was also reported in Paris, according to the WSJ.

As many as 200 cases of the neurological ailment spanning South America, Asia and Europe have been recorded to date, although exact numbers are difficult to come by, says the WSJ. Symptoms include headaches, dizziness, nausea, vertigo and vision problems. But neurological disorders, including brain injuries, can also surface years after the incident, the paper said.

The US still cannot say what causes the illness or who is responsible for it, Secretary of State Antony Blinken told American mediaExternal link on Thursday, following the WSJ revelations.

“We are working overtime across the entire government to get to the bottom of what happened, who’s responsible,” he said. “And in the meantime to make sure that we’re caring for anyone who’s been affected and to protect all of our people to the best of our ability.”