Switzerland Today
Greetings from Lausanne!
Here are the latest news and stories from Switzerland on Monday.
In the news: disaster aid for Madagascar, avalanche deaths and another Credit Suisse controversy.
- There have been heavy snow and dozens of avalanches across the Alps over the past week. At least 11 people have reportedly died in avalanches since Friday. A 46-year-old Italian skier died on Sunday after being swept away by an avalanche while touring in a mountainous region in southeast Switzerland.
- Switzerland is sending a team of disaster experts and water and sanitation equipment to Madagascar, which has been struck by Cyclone Batsirai (photo above) – the second tropical storm to cause extensive damage to the Indian Ocean island in two weeks.
- Switzerland’s second largest bank, Credit Suisse, is a defendant in a trial involving millions of euros that were allegedly laundered through its coffers by a Bulgarian drug trafficker.
Switzerland won its first medals at the Beijing Winter Games on Monday.
Beat Feuz (photo at top of briefing) won gold in a thrilling men’s downhillExternal link, powering down the steep slopes of ‘The Rock’ course in 1 minute 42.69 seconds, just 0.10 seconds ahead of 41-year-old Frenchman Johan Clarey.
“It was perfect weather, no wind, and I was just standing perfectly on the skis. A dream came true,” Feuz told reporters. “The Olympics are a big thing, and today it worked for me. Four years ago I was second and third, but today everything came together. It means the world to me.”
The 34-year-old won bronze in downhill and silver in super-G four years ago at Pyeongchang, South Korea.
In the women’s giant slalom, Switzerland’s Lara Gut–BehramiExternal link (photo above) won the bronze medal behind Sweden’s Sara Hector and Italy’s Federica Brignone, who took the gold and silver medals, respectively.
This was the Swiss athlete’s second Olympic medal, following her bronze in the Sotchi downhill in 2014. The skier from Lugano had an excellent second run, coming from eighth place and one second behind Brigone to secure third.
“I never imagined I would be on the podium for the giant slalom here,” Gut-Behrami said after the race.
Minister creates buzz by giving lift to two female hitchhikers.
Swiss Environment Minister Simonetta Sommaruga (photo above) has been in the news – not for her position on wind turbines or solar panels, but for giving two hitchhikers a lift in her Mini.
On Friday she publishedExternal link a thank-you letter that she had received from two women who she had picked up last weekend in the Bütschelegg region, in canton Bern. One of the women walking in the cold was 90 years old.
The thank-you letter stated: “What a peaceful country we have, where a member of the Federal Council picks up hitchhikers.”
Switzerland’s top ministers are well known for their down-to-earth style and it is not unusual to see members of Switzerland’s seven-person Federal Council in public without security. Ministers are often spotted travelling, shopping, in the cinema or even jogging with only their kids for protection. Health Minister Alain Berset was snapped on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York in 2018 squatting on the side of the pavement preparing for a meeting, for example.
A photo of Swiss President Didier Burkhalter travelling alone on a train also created an international buzz when it was picked up and retweeted by astonished Twitter users.
Changes to the salaries of top directors at the Swiss Broadcasting Corporation (SBC) are making waves.
From January 1, 2023, the salary system for senior SBC managers is due to change. Members of the executive board will no longer receive variable bonuses as part of their annual salary. Instead, their fixed salary will be increased by an amount comparable with the average loss of their variable salary component, according to a news reportExternal link. Similar changes have been made at state-run organisations like Swiss Federal Railways (CFF/SBB) and Swiss Post.
But the change has met criticism in some quarters. In a tweet, president of the Centre Pary, Gerard Pfister, said he was “ashamed” of party colleagues benefitting from such changes.
The Swiss media union (SSM) added its voice today, saying it regretted that SBC had not lowered top directors’ and executives’ salaries to contribute towards recent cost-cutting measures at the Swiss public media organisation and to show their solidarity with staff.
Many more deaths among foreigners than Swiss residents during pandemic
Federal Statistical Office data reveals that a significantly greater number of foreign nationals died during the pandemic in Switzerland in 2020 than Swiss citizens, according to a report by SonntagsBlick newspaperExternal link.
In total, there were 67,780 deaths in Switzerland in 2019, compared with 76,195 in 2020 – an 11.4% increase for Swiss citizens and a 22.4% rise for non-Swiss residents.
Clear differences could be seen when the figures were broken down by age category. Among the over-85s, the number of deaths among non-Swiss rose by 33.8% in 2020 compared with 2019, versus 15.3% for Swiss citizens. For people without a Swiss passport aged 65 to 74, deaths in 2020 rose by 20.9% while the figure increased by 2.2% among the Swiss. For the 45-64 age group, the number of deaths rose by 12.5% among non-Swiss, versus 2.6% for Swiss citizens.
The report said the higher mortality rate is thought to have been caused by greater exposure to negative social and economic factors during the pandemic, such as cramped housing, jobs where people were unable to work from home, and a higher dependency on public transport. Researchers told the paper that structural discrimination may have also played a role, alongside chronic illnesses which are more common among socially disadvantaged residents.
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