Switzerland Today
Greetings from Bern!
Yesterday the Swiss went to the polls to decide on a handful of issues, as they do four times a year. If the votes of the Swiss Abroad were the only ones to be counted, two of the four issues at a federal level would have had a different outcome. Our data journalist crunched the numbers and looked into why this could be.
In the news: A cup of coffee in Zurich is currently more expensive than a Credit Suisse share. The bank’s share price hovered around CHF4.15 today, having hit a record low of CHF4.04 on Friday.
- After a week of unrelenting speculation in the media about possible strategy adjustments, the Swiss bank felt compelled this morning to communicate an interim status report in an attempt to calm investors and staff. Will it work? Watch this space.
- Switzerland’s population is becoming increasingly educated. At the same time, younger women are more likely than men to have a higher education or university degree. Last year 9.9% of women and 19.55% of men aged 65 and over had a university degree. Among 25- to 34-year-olds the rates were significantly higher at 41.5% for women and 34.95% for men.
- Swiss International Air Lines (SWISS) has agreed to offer travel agents CHF10 ($10) “thankyou” payments for flights cancelled from its schedule this summer. SWISS was forced to scrap around 2% of its scheduled flights in the summer months because it did not have enough staff to cope with renewed demand for travel as coronavirus lockdowns ended.
While Swiss voters yesterday backed raising the retirement age for women from 64 to 65 by a whisker (50.6%), the Swiss Abroad gave the move a much clearer thumbs-up (58%).
Indeed, if the Swiss Abroad had been the only people to vote, two other issues decided yesterday – intensive livestock farming and withholding tax – would have been abolished, whereas in fact they passed at the ballot box.
What’s going on? When it comes to the vote on pensions, the explanation is not to be found in the demographic profile of the Swiss Abroad who, in 2021, consisted mainly of women – the driving force against the reform. Similarly, senior citizens are generally the most supportive of the project, but they are in the minority among the Swiss Abroad.
Another possibility is that the challenge of making pension systems sustainable is common to most developed countries. Many governments have already decided to harmonise the retirement age for men and women, or even to increase it. “There’s therefore certainly greater tolerance of these issues on the part of expatriates,” says Martina Mousson, a political scientist. What’s more, the increase in the retirement age in Switzerland has less impact on Swiss nationals working abroad, who are subject to the system in their country of employment.
In contrast to the rest of the country (37.1%), the Swiss Abroad voted by a small majority (50.6%) in favour of the initiative calling for a ban on intensive livestock farming in Switzerland. Mousson puts this down to money. “In Switzerland, too, there is sensitivity to animal welfare, but here the debate has been strongly focused on price increases, which do not concern people living abroad.”
At 52%, the national turnout was one of the highest in the past five years, above the average of 48%. In the 12 districts of Swiss Abroad, however, around 36,500 ballots were cast out of 146,600 registered voters, representing a turnout rate of 25%, two points below the average for votes since September 2017.
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Three-time grand slam champion Andy Murray said he hopes Roger Federer will stay involved in tennis as he heads into retirement but suggested the Swiss great is so gifted that coaching other players might prove difficult.
Federer, 41, claimed 20 grand glam singles titles, ripped up the record books and is widely regarded as the best player ever to wield a racket. Murray was part of Team Europe as Federer bade a tearful farewell to tennis on Friday having announced that the event in London would be the last of his 24-year career. Federer has hinted that he would like to play exhibition events but has been guarded about the chances of moving into coaching at some point in the future.
“I’m sure if he was to coach one day, which he obviously doesn’t need to – he’d pick players that I’d imagine he’d be motivated to be coaching in the big matches and helping there,” Murray, who lost three grand slam finals to Federer, told reporters yesterday. “The one thing that is I think difficult when you are as talented and have as many options as him is to remember that not everybody can do the things that he did. He had the ability to play everything and he had so many options at his disposal that that’s the challenging thing also as a coach sometimes, especially someone in his position.”
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