Switzerland Today

Hello from Bern,

Here are the latest news and talking points from Switzerland on Tuesday.

This content was published on August 23, 2022 - 18:00

3 minutes

As part of the democracy team, I report on the dynamic relationship between citizens and their institutions in Switzerland and abroad. Born in Ireland, I have a BA in European Studies and MA in International Relations. I've been at SWI swissinfo.ch since 2017.

inside of modern building — © Keystone / Christian Beutler

In the news: airport profits, energy crisis, clean water.

Zurich airport posted a CHF55 million ($57 million) net profit for the first six months of the year as post-pandemic air travel picked up. By comparison, the airport made a CHF45 million loss in the corresponding period of 2021. However, figures still lag well behind pre-pandemic levels. The positive figures follow the CH67 million operating profit reported recently by the SWISS airline for the first half of the year.
The Federal Electricity Commission (Elcom) revealed plans to hold back hydropower reserves to help compensate for anticipated energy shortages this winter. Elcom wants hydro operators to hold back up to 666 gigawatt hours of electricity that would normally be sold on the open market – enough to power 150,000 households for a year. Elcom warns this would not be enough to cover the consequences of a widespread electricity shortage across Europe.
Swiss rivers and lakes are clean enough “practically everywhere” to swim in, said the Federal Office for the Environment (FOEV) today. In a first-of-its-kind report on water quality across the country, the FOEV said progress has been made over the past decades, notably in the treatment of waste water. However, levels of phosphorus and nitrogen, and traces of agricultural pesticides, are still too common, it said.

stacked vineyards — © Keystone / Laurent Gillieron

After a parched summer, more (and better?) wine.

It’s still a few weeks until harvest, but Swiss vintners are gearing up for a good season. RTSExternal link radio and the NZZExternal link both report today from the vines of the French-speaking southwest, where a hotter-than-normal spring and summer could mean a “top vintage” in 2022 – notably with a higher than usual alcohol content. Preparations for picking have already begun in some places, with grapes ripe three weeks early; a timeframe only surpassed by the heatwave year of 2003, according to the president of canton Vaud’s wine-growers. If everything goes to plan, it will be a relief after the (also weather-induced) problems of 2021. However, the next weeks are decisive, they say – an spate of hail could yet spoil things.

English-language bookshops in Switzerland: one down.

“The last of its kind,” writes the Tages-Anzeiger today, about the imminent closure of the “Pile of BooksExternal link” shop in Zurich. The English-language bookshop, run since 2007 by Daniel Nufer, will shut its doors in the next months, with Nufer saying he wants to leave “while he’s still enjoying it” – and not wait to get jaded by the demands of running a project close to his heart in a commercially driven sector. Independent bookshops still exist in Zurich, but this is the last English one, the Tages-AnzeigerwritesExternal link. It can yet be saved: Nufer says that while it’s not a “goldmine”, he could still imagine the shop being taken over – for example by an association, or by somebody (like him) who sees such a bookshop as the fulfilment of a personal dream.