Switzerland Today
Greetings from Zurich!
The city of Lucerne kicked off the Fasnacht carnival season at 5am today with 25,000 participants. There will be plenty of garish costumes and masks, Guggemuusige and satire on display around Switzerland in the coming weeks.
Perhaps you have fond memories of Fasnacht in your home town.
In the news: record numbers of foreigners, another grisly glacier secret and the Swiss literature award.
- Switzerland witnessed a surge of foreign workers, arriving mainly from neighbouring countries last year. The 26% increase in long-term work contracts for foreigners was driven by improving economic conditions and demand for skilled workers.
- The Engadine-born author Leta Semadeni, who writes both in Romansh and German, has been awarded this year’s CHF40,000 Swiss Grand Prix for Literature for her life’s work.
- Human remains disgorged by the Corbassière glacier in canton Valais have been identified as a British man who was aged 32 when he went missing on New Year’s Eve in the area nearly 50 years’ ago.
- Some 1,200 people from Turkey and Syria have applied for fast-track Swiss visas to escape the devastating consequences of last week’s earthquake. But the Swiss authorities insist they must all be identified with a passport.
Squat busters
Police moved in today to clear dozens of people from a long-running squat in Zurich who had illegally occupied the area to run it as an autonomous community.
Squatters have been living in the Koch-Areal zone for the best part of the last decade, numbering up to 150 ‘residents’ at times.
People living nearby have long complained of noise and the city council has plans to gentrify the area with affordable accommodation, space for small businesses and a park.
The Zurich authorities bought the 30,000 square-metre plot from UBS bank in 2013, but not everyone agreed with the renovation plans despite a public vote on the issue.
Squatters offered little resistance to police and had moved to an adjacent area when the operation began, setting up barricades.
But firefighters were harassed when putting out fires, leading to police firing rubber bullets at squatters.
This looks to be the end of the dream for the autonomous community, which had established a cinema, workshops and café on the site.
High-end property in demand
Switzerland also boasts some more salubrious accommodation options, which have never been in such high demand from wealthy foreigners.
My colleague, Mary Vakaridis, has been exploring the world of luxury alpine chalets to understand the economics of the market.
“The demand for real-estate is intense at the moment,” says one property company. “Prices have never been this high, especially in the mountain regions.”
Britons and Scandinavians are apparently leading the charge towards luxury Swiss chalets.
Part of the reason is the special lump-sum tax deals that many cantons still offer.
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