Switzerland Today

Greetings from Lausanne.

If today’s newspapers are anything to go by, editors and armchair sports fans are gearing up for some juicy news and a big clash this week in Bellinzona in southern Switzerland, when the former football powerbrokers Sepp Blatter and Michel Platini appear in court on fraud, embezzlement and corruption charges. Pass the popcorn.

The other big Swiss highlight this week will take place in New York, where Switzerland is poised to get one of the two vacant non-permanent seats on the United Nations Security Council for 2023-2024. If elected, how will tiny Switzerland make the UN more democratic? Watch this space.

Keystone / Christophe Gateau

In the news: recovery of Swiss tourism, FluBot malware, Covid-19 infections and sexual consent.

• The return of foreign tourists last winter after Covid-19 restrictions were eased, mainly German, British and French visitors, has given a huge boost to Swiss tourism figures. There was a 54% (+5.1 million) increase in overnight stays compared with the 2020/2021 winter season.
• Switzerland and ten other countries have successfully prevented the rapid spread of the so-called FluBot malware, which infects Android mobile phones via text messages and steals sensitive data from devices, federal prosecutors say.
• Floods, landslides, debris flows and rockfalls last year in Switzerland causeddamage costs totalling CHF450 million. This is the highest figure since 2007.
• The number of new Covid-19 infections increased slightly in Switzerland over the past week. A total of 10,289 new cases were reported on June 7 for the previous seven-day period. The seven-day daily average for new infections stood at 1,473, up 53% on the previous week, the Federal Office of Public Health reportedExternal link today.
• Senators are today continuing the debateExternal link in parliament about revising the Swiss criminal code, which notably foresees legal penalties for sex without consent. They have to decide between the “yes means yes” definition, which would make it necessary for all people involved to give clear verbal or non-verbal agreement beforehand, and the “no means no” principle, which would mean a sexual act could be prosecuted if one participant clearly expressed opposition, but were ignored by the other person(s).

Keystone / Patrick B. Kraemer

Media spotlight turns to Platini-Blatter trial in Switzerland.

After a seven-year investigation, Sepp Blatter and Michel Platini will step into the Swiss Federal Criminal Court this week, facing charges which triggered their downfall from the topof global football.

The caseExternal link ousted Blatter, now 86 and in ill health, ahead of schedule as president of FIFA and ended Platini’s campaign to succeed his former mentor. It also removed Platini as president of UEFA, the governing body of European soccer.

Swiss prosecutors accuse the pair of unlawfully arranging a payment of CHF2 million ($2 million) in 2011 from FIFA to Platini.

Blatter is accused of “fraud, in the alternative of misappropriation, in the further alternative of criminal mismanagement as well as of forgery of a document”. Platini, 66, is accused of fraud, misappropriation, participating in criminal mismanagement as an accomplice, and forgery of a document.

The two former officials have denied wrongdoing and claim they had a verbal deal in 1998. That defence first failed with judges at the FIFA ethics committee, which banned them from football, and later in separate appeals at the Court of Arbitration for Sport. Blatter is due to be questioned on Wednesday and Platini one day later. A verdict is due on July 8.

© Keystone / Christian Beutler

Thousands of teaching jobs remain unfilled across Switzerland.

Teachers wanted! The calls for teachers to fill empty posts have been getting louder. This year, cantonal teaching job platforms in most regions have numerous open positions that need to be filled by August, according to the Tages-Anzeiger newspaperExternal link.

There are many reasons for the large number of vacancies, according to Thomas Minder, President of the Swiss School Principals’ Association. The growing number of students, but also the retirement of teachers from the baby boomer generation are two of them.

In Minder’s canton, Thurgau, there are currently 75 teaching vacancies, while there are 392 in canton Aargau, 402 in canton Bern at the end of May, and 648 in canton Zurich, the paper said.

Owing to the many vacancies, the authorities have been reaching out to retirees, artists and students to step in to teach. Educational training is no longer mandatory, much to the annoyance of the Swiss Teachers’ Association.

The teachers’ shortage has been an ongoing problem in Switzerland for years, but it has been getting worse. Teachers say their cries for help have simply been ignored.

Lower wages is an issue when trying to attract young people to the profession. According the president of the Swiss Teachers’ Association President, Dagmar Rösler, teachers earn around 20% less than people who have a job in the private sector with similar qualifications. Large pay differences also exist between cantons. At kindergarten level, there is a gap of CHF21,000 a year between the canton with the lowest pay (Graubünden) and the highest (Lucerne). At primary level, the difference between the lowest (Neuchâtel) and the highest wage (Zurich) is around CHF44,000. This means teachers move around in Switzerland for better salaries.

Some regions have taken the bull by the horns, like canton Aargau, and have started to closely monitor to ensure that there are enough qualified teachers in schools.