Switzerland Today
Greetings from Zurich!
Like many Western countries, Switzerland has a complex and often prickly relationship with Ankara.
The majority of Turkish voters living in Switzerland wanted regime change. More on that later.
But first, the other news of the day.
In the news: Kosovo condemnation, the state of trees and gender politics.
- The Swiss foreign ministry has condemned violence in northern Kosovo that left 30 NATO KFOR troops injured – although, none of them Swiss.
- A survey of Swiss forests has found many reduced to a poor state by drought and record high temperatures.
- Some 62% of 30,000 respondents to a Tamedia/20 Minuten survey oppose proposals to include a third gender box on official documents.
- More than 2,200 paedophiles have been identified in Switzerland and other countries following an Operation Ninja Turtle operation.This follows a bust in canton Vaud last year.
The Erdogan conundrum
Every vote counted for Recep Tayyip Erdogan as he was narrowly re-elected as Turkey’s president in the run-off polls at the weekend. This included an estimated 3.5 million voters scattered around the world.
A large number live in Germany, where two-thirds of Turkish voters backed the incumbent, according to the Guardian newspaperExternal link.
Voters in France, the Netherlands and Belgium followed the same trend, with 64%, 68% and 72% respectively choosing to re-elect Erdogan.
The picture looks very different in Switzerland, home to around 130,000 Turks or people with Turkish roots.
More than 57% of people who went to polling stations in Zurich, Geneva and Bern voted for a regime change.
“That has a lot to do with the composition of the respective diasporas,” explains Bilgin Ayata, professor of politics at the University of Graz. “The election result in Switzerland is characterised by the fact that a large number of Alevis and Kurds live there.”
There are also many political refugees in Switzerland who arrived after Turkey’s military coup in 1980, according to SRF.
Opposition to Erdogan among the Turkish diaspora in Switzerland has sometimes raised hackles in Ankara.
The Swiss foreign ministry has clashed with the Erdogan government for spying on opponents in Switzerland, particularly after the failed 2016 coup.
Turkey, for its part, has asked legal assistance to find anti-government supporters abroad and demanded action against protestors brandishing ‘defamatory’ posters.
Parliament’s biggest debates
Parliament has started its work for the summer session with a number of critical decisions to make.
Over the course of the next few months, parliament will decide on whether to decommission 25 Leopard 2 tanks – paving the way for them to be sold back to Germany.
Some political parties have demanded an official commission to probe the fire sale of Credit Suisse in March. Early recommendations are a CHF5 million budget and that it includes 14 parliamentarians.
The government is asking parliament for almost CHF12 billion to fund five projects to expand the country’s road network.
Parliament will also debate the merits of lowering the minimum age of voting from 18 to 16.
Another decision to make is whether to introduce new laws to speed up the construction of wind farms to meet ambitious climate targets.
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