Switzerland Today

Hello from Bern,

Where the heat broke two records since yesterday’s briefing: the river climbed to a bath-tub-like 24°Celsius; and the air temperature of 21.4°C this morning at 6.20am made it the hottest night since records began in 1864…

© Keystone / Ennio Leanza

In the news: hotel guests, unexploded bombs, and banking troubles.

• After Bloomberg reported yesterday that Credit Suisse is considering cutting thousands of jobs, the bank’s stock value fell in early trading, while the Fitch Ratings agency downgraded its long-term default rating. Also today, Reuters reported that CS could face losses of up to $106 million in connection with failing Mexican bank Credito Real. The Zurich-based lender currently employs around 50,000 people worldwide.
• Swiss hotels recorded 16.9 million overnight stays between January and June this year, an increase of 47.3% on 2021, the Federal Statistical Office (FSO) said today. While domestic clients made up over half of bookings (10 million), there was also a big return of international visitors after the lifting of pandemic restrictions. Numbers are still however 10% down on the same period in 2019, before the pandemic.
• Divers from the Zurich police and the army recovered an unexploded First World War shell from Lake Zurich today. The mine-launcher was first spotted on Tuesday by a recreational diver who contacted the authorities. It was lying at a depth of just under five metres and in proximity to a popular lakeside restaurant in Zurich’s district 8. Hundreds of unexploded shells are found in Switzerland each year, many dating from the World Wars.

Keystone / Steffen Schmidt

Preaching to the party: Swiss missionaries in Mallorca.

Despite a centuries-old affinity for wine and spirits, Christians are not usually associated with hedonism. SRF reportsExternal link today that Jesus is however very present this summer on the Ballermann party mile in Mallorca. Some 160 missionaries – a third of them Swiss evangelicals – are currently mingling and praying with the thousands of youths who travel to Ballermann each year to get drunk etc. Why Mallorca? It’s a good place to spread the word, says Manuel Leiser from the Swiss contingent. On the one hand, people are in party mode, upbeat and open; on the other hand, when they inevitably crash, after too much partying, they are also open – to the message that “there’s more to life”. SRF reports that while some partyers are sceptical, many are open to the missionaries. In Switzerland, where religious affiliation has been declining for decades, they need all the new members they can find.

© Keystone / Gaetan Bally

Misplaced kicks and misplaced legal cases.

Just a few weeks after Swiss judges ruled on the high-profile case of Sepp Blatter and Michel Platini, today they were called on to settle another footballing dispute. This time, the country’s highest court was faced with a misplaced kick that landed in a neighbour’s garden during a game in canton Zurich last June. At the time (Keystone-SDA writes), after 30(!) players turned up to ask for the ball back, and then a police officer also became involved, the neighbour in question launched cases against the players (for property damage) and the officer (for making an unjustified demand). In the case of the latter, at least, the Federal Court was clear: the policeman had fulfilled his duty to “protect public order”; and the decision by Zurich authorities not to even process the man’s complaint was also justified, the court said – in the name of having the flexibility to avoid “misplaced” cases raised against public officials.