Switzerland Today

Hello from Bern,

It’s the beginning of a new coronavirus chapter here in Switzerland. Today the government announced the lifting of all remaining pandemic restrictions, including the mask requirement in public transport and the five-day isolation requirement for those who test positive.

Does this mean the pandemic is over? Or is it just over for now?

Keystone / Matthias Schrader

In the News: More mountain rescues, more money for youth in Africa, and no more pandemic restrictions.

• After two years of pandemic living, the government announced today that all remaining public health measures to tackle Covid-19 in Switzerland will be lifted as of Friday, April 1. And, no, this is not an April Fool’s Day joke. “We can’t say that the crisis is over, but we can certainly say that the acute phase of the crisis is over,” Health Minister Alain Berset told journalists in Bern on Wednesday. Due to the “very high immunity” in the population, the health system has been able to cope with rising cases.
• There were a record number of mountain emergencies and rescues in 2021. This is according to annual figures published by the Swiss Alpine Club on Wednesday. Some 3,680 people had accidents and had to be rescued or recovered last year, while over 200 lost their lives. The high number may be attributed to the heavy snow and avalanches in the winter months. Another interesting takeaway is that fewer foreigners had fatal accidents in the Swiss mountains last year. On average, foreigners accounted for 40% of deaths in the past. In 2021, non-Swiss made up 30% of fatalities.
• The government announced some CHF22 million for projects to protect youth migrants in North and West Africa, and to deter them from making dangerous journeys across the Mediterranean to Europe. The money is set to be spent over the next four years in an effort to “create better prospects for children and adolescents” in the region and to address the root causes of irregular migration and forced displacement.
• German-language paper Republik has reported that Switzerland didn’t exactly copy-paste the EU sanctions list. Although the Swiss government said it fully adopted EU sanctions against Russia, Republik compared the lists and found 27 Russian and Ukrainian citizens, 3 government authorities, and the Wagner Group missing from the Swiss listExternal link. It’s unclear why these are excluded but it raises a lot of questions.

Fondation De La Haute Horlogerie/cyril Zingaro

The wonderful world of watches comes to GenevaFamilies brought Ukrainian refugees to safety, now what?Can expensive Switzerland get more expensive?

It’s that time in Geneva when the white gloves come out for the showcase of some of the newest, most expensive watches in the world. For those of us that can’t afford or aren’t able to travel for a front row seat at the Watches and Wonders SalonExternal link in Geneva, the New York Times has a series of stories about what you might be missing.

In one story, the paper profiles Jean-Claude BiverExternal link, who in the world of Swiss watchmaking, is often credited with helping the industry rise from the ashes of the quartz crisis through visionary leadership and inventive marketing. He apparently started the tradition of celebrity ambassadors when he hired supermodel Cindy Crawford as the face of an Omega collection.

While an innovator on the one hand, he also believes in the purity and sanctity of the watch world. In a rejection of e-commerce, his new watch brand, JC Biver, will be available strictly through a select number of brick-and-mortar retail partners for an average price of CHF350,000 ($379,000).

“We believe when you buy a watch with so much behind the product, you must enter the church and listen to the speech of the priest,” Biver told the paper. “What I’m interested in is the soul and feeling of the watch. The illusion that when you wear the watch, it will protect you. It’s totally irrational, but that’s love.”

Who said buying a CHF300,000 watch was rational?

Facebook has been a life saver for many Ukrainian refugees, but it’s also created complications for refugee agencies.

Since the start of the war, more than 18,000 Ukrainian refugees have arrived in Switzerland. Many of them used Facebook, specifically a group called Switzerland with Ukraine, to connect directly with hosts in Switzerland.

As the Neue Zürcher ZeitungreportedExternal link today, one Ukrainian woman with two teenage daughters posted a message on the Facebook group and within a short time 50 people responded including Cathrine Pauli, a Swiss woman living near Zurich who offered a room with a private bathroom. The family arrived at Pauli’s house shortly after.

But this isn’t how things are typically done in Switzerland – a place that isn’t exactly known for “light” bureaucracy. The Swiss Refugee CouncilExternal link is currently placing Ukrainians from the federal asylum centers with private households who have registered in a database. But the process can be complex and time consuming. The agency has warned against impatient hosts going directly to train stations to pick up refugees and accommodate them, saying “we don’t have addresses and nobody has an overview”. There are also concerns about safety if no one does any background checks on the host families.

The challenge now is that hosts, who took the informal route, are struggling to navigate the system and becoming frustrated. Some, like Pauli, say her guests are still waiting on S permits and aren’t getting prompt answers from authorities on supplies and other things. Some private individuals interviewed say they feel underappreciated by authorities.

This is causing a lot of debate in Swiss media about the responsibilities of well-meaning individuals and authorities.

Apparently, it can. The Ukraine war is driving prices up in Switzerland, as in many countries. According to Swiss public television SRF, in February 2022 prices of petroleum productsExternal link increased by 6.1% compared to the previous month. This is more than 27% higher than the same month last year. The town of Yverdon-les-Bains just agreed on an average increase in natural gas prices of 45% from May 1 due to the surge in prices globallyExternal link.

Clothes and shoes have also gone up. In February, prices rose by 3.3% compared to January. But for now, my CHF5 ($5.40) cappuccino hasn’t been affected. Seems food and beverage prices have remained stable, at least for now.

Here are some nice visualsExternal link courtesy of Tages-Anzeiger that capture how prices have risen since the start of the war.