Switzerland Today

Hello from Bern,

What do Dracula, Sepp Blatter and full moon have in common? Well, the former FIFA chief is back in the news as a full moon is due to shine in the Swiss night sky tonight and the Irish author is Bram Stoker was born 175 years ago.

But first, here are the latest news and stories from Switzerland on Tuesday, November 8, 2022.

Anthony Anex

In the news:Swiss neutrality, a raid on a Swiss bank in Germany and the loss of Swiss purchasing power.

• Police have searched two branches of Swiss bank UBS in neighbouring Germany in connection with alleged money laundering by a Russian businessman, according to German officials and media. The justice authorities said the raids were connected to an investigation in which officials raided a luxury yacht and two dozen properties in Germany in September.
• Wages in Switzerland are not keeping pace with inflation, and in 2022 the purchasing power of employees has dropped significantly. This has led to the highest loss in real wages for Swiss workers in 80 years, according to a new survey. On average, Swiss companies plan to increase nominal wages by 2.2% in 2023, but real wages are likely to stagnate next year due to the expected sharp downturn in the Swiss economy and a moderation in inflation.
• The right-wing Swiss People’s Party has officially launched its initiative, which aims to prohibit Switzerland from entering into defence alliances and participating in sanctions. The campaigners have 18 months to collect at least 100,000 signatures of Swiss citizens to prompt a nationwide vote on the proposal, which is also known as “neutrality initiative” and wants to anchor “perpetual and armed neutrality” in the country’s constitution.

Keystone/Diether Endlicher

Ex-FIFA chief Blatter: ‘Qatar is a mistake’

Switzerland’s former FIFA boss, Sepp Blatter, is back in the news headlines. In an interview, he gives his version of how and why Qatar was awarded the 2022 football World Cup.

Blatter again lashes out again his successor at FIFA, Gianni Infantino, and former UEFA boss, Michel Platini, accusing the Frenchman to have succumbed to the charm of the then French president, Nicolas Sarkozy.

The interview with the newspapers of the Tamedia group is the first since being acquitted with Platini in July of financial misconduct at FIFA after a trial at Switzerland’s federal criminal court. His comments also come less than two weeks ahead of the kick-off the World Cup tournament in Doha.

The 86-year-old may not have made a lot of new friends with the latest statements, except perhaps among the Swiss national team. Blatter says the squad has the potential to reach the semi-finals.

Also in the news: A few dozen people have protested in front of the FIFA museum in Zurich to press for the rights of the LGBT+ community ahead of the World Cup in Qatar.

The All Out group that organised the protest said the demonstration aimed to “make sure FIFA and Qatar know the world is watching and that citizens around the world expect action”.

Keystone/Thibault Camus

Sad reality of romance scams

Cybercrime in Switzerland has been on the increase over the past few years, but for the first time, so-called romance scams have been reported separately in the police statistics. The confidence trick involves feigning romantic intentions towards a victim, gaining the victim’s affection, and then using that goodwill to get the victim to send money to the scammer under false pretences or to commit fraud against the victim.

The scammers allegedly from Nigeria proceeded in a highly professional manner, as the Neue Zürcher Zeitung newspaper highlights in a two-page report about 50-year-old “Mireille”, who lives in a small Swiss town.

The case shows that the fraudsters pretend to be friends or in a relationship to learn everything about the victim’s life. In this way, they are able to create a personality profile, on the basis of which a tailor-made script for the scam is developed. Only after several months does money come into play.

With pressure, tricks, forgeries or sleep deprivation, the fraudsters manipulate the feelings to get ever larger sums of money – often with astonishing success. “Mireille” finally paid almost CHF300,000 ($302,000). Because the gangs are based abroad, there is little chance of solving the crimes and getting the money back.

Of 776 cases reported in Switzerland last year, only 12% could be solved.