Switzerland Today
Hello from Bern,
Here are the latest news and updates from Switzerland on Wednesday.
In the news: More Russia sanctions, and high-profile banker case wraps up.
The Swiss government has adopted a new set of European Union trade and finance sanctions against Russia and Belarus over the war in Ukraine. Economics Minister Guy Parmelin said his ministry also extended travel and finance restrictions on a further 217 individuals, including two daughters of the Russian president Vladimir Putin, and 18 entities. So far about 900 individuals and entities have been on the Swiss sanctions list.
A Swiss court has sentenced former Raiffeisen bank CEO Pierin Vincenz to almost four years in prison for fraud, forgery of documents and criminal mismanagement. The verdict, somewhat surprising in its severity, came after a high-profile trial which sparked big media interest, largely due to Vincenz’ high profile, but also the details of company expenses he racked up in places like strip clubs. Vincenz said he will appeal the verdict.
Swiss prosecutors have shelved an inquiry into various high-ranking Egyptians linked to money laundering and organised crime. The inquiry dates from 2011 and the Arab Spring, when claims emerged that Swiss banks had been used to hide corrupt funds of allies of ousted leader Hosni Mubarak. A decade later however, “the suspicion of money laundering cannot be substantiated based on the information available”, the public prosecutor said today. Some CHF400 million in frozen funds are to be released.
German word of the day – ‘Wutbürgern’ cause worries for police.
The increase in social tensions in Switzerland during the pandemic was perhaps most obvious from the violent protest outside government buildings last September. Threats were also made against some politicians, which led to beefed up police protection for they and their families. But over the past week, two more events have shown that the danger to public figures is still present: the kidnapping of Christoph Berger (head of the Federal Vaccination Commission), and the news that former prosecutor Dick Marty has been under protection following death threats he claims originated in Serbia.
The woman responsible for monitoring all of this, Federal Police chief Nicoletta della Valle, is not optimistic in an interviewExternal link in the Tages-Anzeiger today. The problem, she says, is the “charged” nature of so-called “Wutbürgern” – literally “rage-citizens”, or according to Wiktionary.org, “angry or enraged citizens, especially those who feel politically marginalised”. Many were indeed provoked by the pandemic. But della Valle says such folk are no longer defined by a single issue, nor by left-right politics, but by their latching onto a theme – whether climate, animal rights, Covid – and using it to vent.
Unfortunately, she says, this anger is increasingly making itself heard and seen: whether through online posts, violent demonstrations, or physically showing up at government ministers’ houses – previously a taboo. “We are seeing a sort of dam breach; inhibition thresholds have sunk,” she says. Della Valle says that from the point of view of the police, what’s needed are more resources to track the online anger and act before it’s too late. But once such processes begin, it’s difficult to go back. The rosy image of Switzerland as an island of safety in a chaotic world, where politicians ride the tram next to citizens, is increasingly a thing of the past, she says.
Montreux festival returns after two disrupted pandemic editions.
After the news that the Rolling Stones are coming to Bern this summer, today a host of other music stars were announced a bit further south: for the prestigious Montreux Jazz Festival, to take place on the shores of Lake Geneva in the first two weeks of July. While there will be some new(er) talent on show, especially on the second “Jazz Lab” stage, the overall flavour is nostalgic: headliners include Diana Ross, Robert Plant, Herbie Hancock, Van Morrison, Björk, and Nick Cave (wonderfully described by the Keystone-SDA news agency as a “poet-crooner”). To buy tickets for these 20th-century stars, however, you might also need to have been saving for a few decades: Diana Ross alone will set you back CHF155 ($166). The festival will thankfully also continue its tradition of offering a free programme on the lakeshore.
Hit me baby pun more time: Britney Spears in the Swiss press.
The English-language skills of Swiss headline writers were pushed to their limits today with the news that pop idol Britney Spears is pregnant. Spears, already a mother of two, announced the happy fact yesterday, and, today, at least three Swiss dailies led with the headline: “Baby, One More Time” – a reference to the 1998 single that made Britney a superstar (they tactfully left out the words “Hit Me”). And while papers didn’t reach far enough into the back catalogue for other Spears classics such as “Born to make you happy”, “My Baby”, or indeed “Ooh Ooh Baby”, the NZZ at least bucked the trend – it went with the headline “Britney Spears ‘did it again’”, a reference to her second album from the year 2000. In this case, the newspaper tactfully left out the “Oops”.
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