Switzerland Today
Hello from Bern,
Where today’s briefing looks at a sacrosanct rule of modern society: whatever you do, don’t disrupt the traffic! Unless it’s for popular (and profitable) street festivals. More on this after the news.
In the news: Swiss diplomatic network bracing for cuts.
- The foreign ministry wants to close the Swiss embassy in Bolivia by summer 2024. A ministry spokeswoman confirmed to the Neue Zürcher Zeitung (NZZ) that the decision has however yet to be signed off by government. The La Paz (pictured) closure comes as part of a CHF10 million ($11.25 million) annual savings drive at the foreign ministry, which has raised concerns in the Swiss Abroad community.
- Swiss health insurance company Suva warned on Monday of an increase in work-related accidents as temperatures spike. The number of such accidents rise by 7% when temperatures rise above 30°C, it said. For its part, the Unia trade union has called on rules that make employers responsible for the health of workers during extreme heatwaves.
- Of the roughly 100,000 people who fly drones in Switzerland, only around half have so far conformed with a legal obligation to register with authorities, SRF reported today. New rules introduced at the start of this year set safety and operational standards and require training and examination for certain categories of drones. They also define weight limits, maximum flight heights and geographical restrictions.
Zurich World Cycling Championships hit by wave of complaints.
The world’s top cyclists, currently sweating their way through France, will be racing around Zurich in a little over a year’s time – unless local complaints put a spoke in their wheels. The NZZ reportsExternal link that 69 appeals against the city’s hosting of the 2024 World Road Cycling Championships are currently pending; not against the event as such, but rather the traffic restrictions, which will see major roads in the south of the city blocked for a week.
Along with businesses, two hospitals are concerned; they say patient safety is at risk due to ambulance diversions. “As the route currently stands, it doesn’t work,” the president of a Children’s Hospital in Hottigen told SRF televisionExternal link back in May.
What options are on the table to make it work? In the SRF report, neither organisers nor complainants sounded keen to back down, although a statement by the world cycling union (UCI) wasn’t overly concerned. In a worst-case scenario however, the UCI could simply re-locate at short notice, as it did in 2020, when Switzerland was last due to host the event: due to a coronavirus-induced cancelling, it was brought to Italy instead.
AI makes climate activists look even more disruptive than they are.
Another group apparently worried about the effect of road blockages on patient safety is the centre-right Radical-Liberal Party. That is, according to one of its new campaign posters ahead of October elections. The poster, RTS reportsExternal link, shows a group of orange-vested activists sitting on a road and blocking a line of traffic, at the head of which sits, conveniently, an ambulance. The slogan on top of the picture is a call to “innovate, not block”.
For those who think it might be helpful for the party to show us what kind of innovation it means, rather than capitalising on the general annoyance with climate activists, rest assured! In this case, the “innovation” is in the very material of the poster: rather than a real photo, it uses one generated by Artificial Intelligence! The blocking of the ambulance never happened; it was invented by a communications firm, yet it portrays “a situation which happens every week in Switzerland”, a Radical-Liberal politician told RTS.
Does it? Road blockages by activists are frequent, but there have been few public outcries about medical emergencies and stalled ambulances. Then again, the media doesn’t catch everything. As for the question of whether using faked photos marks an unscrupulous deterioration of political fair-play, the Radical-Liberal Party’s comms head sees it otherwise: political parties are often accused of lagging behind new communication tools, he told RTS: with this campaign, the party is “up to speed”. Innovation!
Population of Zurich more than quadruples over three days.
No concerns about traffic and restrictions were on show at the weekend in Zurich, as around two million(!) people piled into the city centre for “Züri Fäscht”. Held for the first time since 2019, the normally triennial event is described by organisers as “a unique mix of folk festival, market, music, and parties”; photos and reports from the scene showed happy-looking masses thronging the closed-off streets and lakeside, eating and drinking, looking at fireworks, and dancing. Organisers said the event was a success. The police also sounded satisfied: only 30-odd arrests, they reported on Sunday.
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