Switzerland Today
Hello from Bern,
Here are the latest news and stories making the rounds on this rainy day in Switzerland.
In the News: US government commission criticizes Switzerland, more cyberattacks, lower corporate tax rates and a lot of frozen assets.
- The US government Helsinki Commission held an online briefingExternal link looking at how Switzerland’s secrecy laws help Russian oligarchs hide money in the country. A representative of the Helsinki Commission organization said Swiss banks are said to be guarding around $200 billion in Russian funds.
- Both the corporate tax rate and the tax rate for high income earners have declined in Switzerland over the last year according to an analysis by the tax advisory firm KPMG. Three cantons lowered their corporate tax rates last year, and 12 cantons lowered the tax rate for high income earners. This comes as Switzerland faces more pressure to implement the global corporate tax rate deal agreed last year that targets a 15% minimum corporate tax rate. Some 18 cantons now have a tax rate below the 15%.
- Switzerland’s competence centre for cybersecurity says attacks on computer systems more than doubled last year compared with 2020. The sharp increase to 21,712 cases from 10,833 might be due to simplified reporting procedures but at the same time, the centre assumes that the real number of attacks was “substantially” bigger as there is no reporting obligation in Switzerland. The increase in attacks using ransomware was particularly worrying. In February, Swissport, the world’s largest airport ground services and cargo handling company, had to go offline because of a ransomware attack.
- Credit Suisse has frozen billions in client assets in connection with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. According to its detailed quarterly report, the blocked assets amounted to CHF10.4 billion ($10.4 billion). The share of Russian clients now amounts to less than 4% of the total portfolio of the assets management business.
Zurich considers a “radical” proposal for more parental leave
There is one area where Switzerland is never confused with Sweden – parental leave. In Scandinavia, parents have more than a year of parental leave when a child is born. In Switzerland, mothers receive 14 weeks of leave and fathers are entitled to two weeks. The latter is thanks to a nationwide vote in 2020.
This could all change soon in canton Zurich. The NZZ newspaper reported today that voters in canton Zurich will decide on May 15 on what the paper calls a “radical proposal by Swiss standardsExternal link”. The proposal is for each parent (both mothers and fathers) to be entitled to 18 weeks of leave. The initiators believe Zurich should take a “pioneering role” in Switzerland but of course, the change will cost – the estimate is about CHF400 million shared by Zurich employers and employees.
Aside from the benefits to children of both parents having more time at home in the critical first weeks of life, proponents argue that more leave will also have a positive effect on gender equality. The NZZ comes to a controversial conclusion though – they argue that “if the main goal is to combat discrimination against women in the workplace, then how long the parental leave lasts is irrelevant”.
They base this on the difference in lost wages between mothers and fathers over time after a child is born. The difference in lost wages is about the same in the United States and Sweden, which have starkly different policies on parental leave (the US legally offers no leave). The difference is much lower (around 30%) than in Germany and Switzerland, where it is around 60%.
Does this mean parental leave has no impact on equality? Umm, not exactly. The article argues that the drop in wages among mothers in Switzerland is largely due to the large amount of part-time work there. More women work full-time in both Sweden and the US. But this isn’t everything. Cultural norms are clearly at play. But it brings up another question – how should we measure equality, and perhaps, more importantly, how to use data to develop the right policies.
Switzerland has a mixed record on welcoming refugees
The current warm welcome to Ukrainian refugees reminds many in Switzerland of the year 1956, when Soviet tanks rolled into Hungary. A wave of solidarity ran through Switzerland. Refugees from Hungary were given asylum unconditionally. All that was required was “a wish on their part to come to Switzerland”, declared the federal government at the time.
But not all refugees were treated the same, writes my colleague David Eugster. “Refugees from Algeria in the 1950s were a good example of this selective policy.” Ideological alignment and geopoliticals played perhaps more of a role in deciding which refugees Switzerland welcomed. “If someone did not fit the profile of an anti-Communist, they were less likely to be accepted.”
Only in 1979 did Switzerland adopt a legal framework determining who might claim the right to asylum. This was an attempt to remove some of the arbitrary nature in decisions but this coincided with a massive wave of asylum applications. Whereas refugees from Communist countries in previous decades had been assumed to be resisting the regime and therefore qualified for asylum, persecution as a group no longer counted as grounds for granting asylum. These “new” refugees, many of whom also “looked different” writes Eugster, were regarded with deep-seated mistrust.
The idea that asylum seekers would abuse Switzerland’s hospitality became a major theme in the 1980s and remains a source of political tension today. As many people open their homes and businesses to Ukrainian refugees, questions are swirlingExternal link in the country as to whether refugees are treated differently, and if so, why.
Want a campfire without the smoke? Swiss Post has you covered.
What can be better than sitting around a campfire with a bunch of friends. Well, the Swiss Post has packaged that moment into a new postage stamp dedicated to the “Pfadi” in honour of the National Scouts Jamboree that will happen in the Valais this summer.
The postage stamp apparently smells like a campfire. The scent is released by rubbing the special coating of the stamp and evoke memories of “campfire, huge campsites and spending time together with friends” wrote the Swiss Post.
This isn’t the first time that the Post has produced a stamp with a fragrance. The first time was in 2001 when there was a stamp that smelled like chocolate to celebrate 100 years of Chocosuisse, the chocolate industry association.
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