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Dear Swiss Abroad,

At the same time as this briefing lands on your screen, the Swiss village of Brienz/Brinzauls – which hit international headlines this week – will be empty of humans. How long will it be until they can return? Nobody knows for sure. This and the rest of the news in Friday’s briefing.

brienz
© Keystone / Gian Ehrenzeller

In the news: Rockslide red alert, weapons re-export rules, and a sneak peek into the June vote.

  • The Swiss village of Brienz/Brinzauls, which sits beneath an unstable mountain, will be devoid of people and animals and placed on red alert from the time this briefing goes out, at 6pm today. The local authorities in canton Graubünden, southeast Switzerland, today said it’s necessary to raise the alert level from orange to red. This means that no-one will be allowed to enter the village once the evacuation is complete. In the worst-case scenario several large rocks could tumble down the mountain. This has the potential to destroy the village.
  • After months of refusing to re-export Swiss war materiel to Ukraine, a parliamentary committee in Switzerland has recommended easing re-export controls. On Thursday the Senate approved two motions that could allow exporting Swiss armaments to third countries, if some requirements are met, including the respect of human rights. The motion will now go to the House of Representatives, and it could even lead to a referendum. But not before next year.
  • A poll ahead of Swiss national votes on June 18 shows citizens – for now – largely support the three issues on the ballot papers: a new climate law, an overhaul of tax rules for multinationals, and a revision to Covid-19 legislation. The first large survey before the vote organised by the Swiss Broadcasting Corporation (SBC), carried out by the gfs.bern polling institute in April-May, notably shows that 72% of citizens back the new climate law, with 25% against and 3% undecided.
hospital
Keystone / Laurent Gillieron

Nurses in Switzerland denounce working conditions and staff shortages

Today, on International Nurses Day, the Swiss Association of Nurses (ASI) issued a warning about growing staff shortages and poor working conditions, RTS reportsExternal link. Warnings like these are not new in Switzerland. Since the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic, and even before, healthcare workers have repeatedly called for better conditions, and last year some seven hundred demonstrated in Bern to stop the “healthcare exodus”.

But if the World Health Organization has declared the end of the coronavirus emergency, the problems for nurses have not disappeared. On the contrary, RTS writes, almost 15,000 nurse positions were open at the end of March, and working nurses are calling for measures like pay rises, fewer working hours, and equal treatment compared with other public-sector workers. “It is inconceivable that personnel working in different state jobs are not considered at the same level,” said Claudette Francoeur, a nurse in canton Neuchâtel.

Lastly, some are worried about the training conditions for nursing students: another recent survey showed that most students felt they were not able to completely catch up on skills training courses that could not be provided during the pandemic.

data centre
Keystone / Lino Mirgeler

Cantons call for sovereign data storage capabilities


As cyber- and ransomware attacks target more and more companies and public authorities in Switzerland, data security is high on the list of worries. As such, the Swiss state’s plan to outsource the storing of some data to foreign cloud operators such as Amazon and Ali Baba came in for a bit of criticism when announced in 2021 – although it didn’t stop the plan from going ahead.

This week, just a month after the Swiss weather service became the first official body to upload data to a non-Swiss (albeit Swiss-based) cloud, some politicians are calling for a sovereign solution to the issue. The obscure-sounding “Latin Conference of Digital Directors”, which brings together representatives of the seven French and Italian-speaking cantons of Switzerland, wants action, RTS reportsExternal link.

“The goal is to work with local, Swiss partners to develop it on Swiss territory to allow public authorities to store [for example] tax-payer data there,” Neuchâtel’s Crystel Graf told RTS. She and her colleagues reckon there are plenty of capable Swiss-based firms who could set up such a system, and that it is the responsibility of the state to “maintain strategic autonomy” on important digital services.

The seven cantons (it’s unclear why the “Latin” regions have taken such an interest in this issue, which affects the whole country) have written to government minister Karin Keller-Sutter to raise their concerns, RTS says.

shoe
©keystone/peter Schneider

Swiss man aims to become world’s top shoe shiner


Just a week after Prince Charles became King Charles, London is set to crown another king this weekend. While shoe polishing is not usually considered the most royal of tasks, SRF reportsExternal link that a number of luxury footwear brands have come together to organise the rather odd-sounding “World Championships of Shoe Shining” – and a Swiss man is in the running for the victory.

Albert Gjukaj from Lucerne faces competition from a British and a Japanese contestant for the title, which he “absolutely wants to win”, SRF writes. Gjukaj, who trained as a car mechanic before transitioning towards his passion, explains how to make a shoe sparkle: “apply several wax layers, wafer thin, and now and then a drop of water; softly polish it, following your instinct – and suddenly the shine appears”.

As for what drives Gjukaj, SRF writes that “Shoes are more than just a piece of clothing for the 39-year-old. They are an expression of a personality.” Gjukaj himself regrets that not many people these days can afford high-quality shoes that last a lifetime. But, he says: “when I meet such a person, I immediately have the highest respect for them and I know: this person is absolutely trustworthy.”

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