Switzerland Today
Dear Swiss Abroad,
Hurricane-force winds, hailstones the size of golf balls and lightning storms. Extreme weather events are becoming more intense and more expensive, according to a survey of the country's largest insurers. Canton Ticino has been worst hit by extreme weather over the past ten years. And 2023 looks like being a bad one for damage claims, Blickreports.
The dangers linked to climate-related events have increased, but the good news is that the damage is well under control thanks to extensive preventive measures taken by the Swiss authorities, says Axa insurance.
Read on for more news and stories from Switzerland.
In the news: possible SBC job cuts, Horizon Europe and Erasmus+, and pay rises.
- The Swiss Broadcasting Corporation (SBC), SWI swissinfo.ch’s parent company, opposes the reduction in radio and television licence fees proposed by the government. The implementation of its CHF300 counterproposal to the “CHF200 is enough!” initiative threatens to result in around 900 job losses by 2027, says the SBC.
- Recent Swiss-EU developments suggest that an end to Switzerland’s exclusion from the key European research and education programmes Horizon Europe and Erasmus+ may be discussed next year, according to Luciana Vaccaro, head of swissuniversities, the umbrella group of Swiss universities.
- The Swiss National Bank has been criticised by a coalition of environmental NGOs for an alleged $9 billion (CHF7.9 billion) investment in 69 oil and gas fracking companies.
- Swiss union Uniareports that general pay rises in excess of 2.5%, and even above inflation, have been achieved in several sectors in Switzerland for 2024.
The Swiss Senate has a new look.
The Centre Party has consolidated its position following the last federal elections that took place in four German-speaking cantons – Zurich, Schaffhausen, Solothurn, Aargau – and canton Ticino on Sunday. It gained one seat and remains the strongest representation with 15 seats (2019: 13). The Radical-Liberal Party is in second place with eleven seats (2019: 12), ahead of the Social Democratic Party with nine seats (2019: unchanged) and the Swiss People’s Party with six seats (2019: unchanged). [numbers compared with autumn session 2019].
The centre bloc is also strengthening thanks to the return of the Liberal Green Party (1 seat) after two legislatures of absence.
It was generally a bad day for parties on the right, however. The Radicals lost one seat, as did the People’s Party. On Sunday, Ticino re-elected its president Marco Chiesa of the People’s Party. But apart from this win, the leading party in the House of Representatives fell short in the other cantons, losing a seat in Aargau and failing in Zurich.
The Neue Zürcher Zeitung (NZZ) described the defeat in Zurich as a “bourgeois debacle”External link. Tiana Angelina Moser of the Liberal Green Party beat Gregor Rutz of the People’s Party thanks to the support of the left.
The Radicals are the “real losers of the 2023 legislative elections. The debacle in Zurich is representative of the current weakness of the Liberals,” said NZZ.
Blick newspaper highlighted the current favourable position of the CentreExternal link in the Senate. “The party can therefore set the tone, as long as most of its representatives to the Senate do not deviate from the party line. This often happened during the legislature which has just ended.”
The Tages-AnzeigerExternal link underlined the good performance of the Social Democrats during the last round of the 2023 federal elections. In Solothurn, Franziska Roth retained the seat of her colleague Roberto Zanetti, and in Schaffhausen Simon Stocker beat Thomas Minder.
The paper said talk of a shift to the right must be put in perspective, highlighting the erosion of the Radicals and the difficulty of the People’s Party to match its performance in the House of Representatives.
But the People’s Party is still influential, it said. “If it launches political ideas which allow it to attract the Radicals and the conservative part of the Centre, it should be able to obtain majorities. A handful of votes from the Centre is enough for that. Moreover, the left and the Greens are weakened, the gains of the Social Democrats change nothing,” wrote Tages-Anzeiger.
My colleague Katy Romy spoke to political scientist Lukas Golder about the elections and his analysis of the balance of power in the next parliamentary term.
Swiss TV report reveals sexual abuse cases at Abbey of Saint Maurice.
An investigationExternal link by Swiss public television RTS has found numerous cases of sexual abuse by priests linked to the Abbey of Saint-Maurice in canton Valais, the historic Catholic institution and religious community founded in 515 that reports directly to the Vatican.
In all, nine priests are implicated, the Mise au Point report claims, including the interim head of the institution, Prior Roland Jaquenoud. He took over the post after the resignation of Father Jean Scarcella, who was accused of sexual abuse.
Most cases took place between 1995 and 2005. These concern the high school college, the former boarding school closed in 2021, and the parishes where the abbey canons worked.
The TV report includes allegations of sexual abuse made by victims and their relatives, and criticism of the subsequent handling of the cases by the abbey and the Vatican.
“All the cases brought to our attention have been handled according to the rules,” the abbey told RTS. “There is only one file in progress with us, that of Monsignor Jean Scarcella who is currently the subject of a preliminary investigation on which we obviously cannot comment.”
Damien Raemy is the new fondue world champion.
The Fribourg cheesemaker’s Gruyère and Vacherin mix helped him beat 200 competitors, including several from outside Switzerland, at the fourth Fondue World Championships, held in Tartegnin, canton Vaud this weekend.
Raemy is part of a family of cheesemakers from Corbières, canton Fribourg, where he makes Gruyère and Vacherin cheese together with 23 milk producers.
The fourth Fondue World Championships brought together over 10,000 visitors and more than 200 competitors, both amateurs and professionals. Fondues had to be composed of at least 50% Gruyère cheese in order to compete.
A jury of food professionals and amateurs tasted dozens of fondues, which were evaluated according to five criteria: taste, visual appearance, consistency, homogeneity and general impression.
For the first time, qualifying rounds were organised in other parts of the world: Belgium, France, Brazil and Canada.
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