Switzerland Today

This content was published on March 1, 2024 - 18:00

4 minutes

Originally from Ireland, Domhnall worked in research and writing in a couple of European countries before joining swissinfo.ch in 2017. He covers direct democracy and politics and is usually in Bern.

Hello from Switzerland,

where farmers in Vaud have proven to be as media-savvy as any high-priced Zurich PR firm: a photo from their demonstration last night (see above) made it to the websites of almost all major news outlets today – including SWI swissinfo.ch. Farmers were notably protesting about the price of milk. Here’s a general rundown of why they’re angry, and how their situation compares to elsewhere in Europe.

thomas jordan — KEYSTONE/© KEYSTONE / ENNIO LEANZA

In the news: long-standing chairman of Swiss central bank steps down.

Thomas Jordan, at the helm of the Swiss National Bank (SNB) for a 12 years, will leave in September. Both the SNB and the Swiss government expressed their gratitude to Jordan for his leadership over a crisis-filled decade. No information was given about a successor.
Swiss financial watchdog FINMA should be boosted to ensure it could deal with a failure of UBS if that scenario were ever to play out, the Financial Stability Board has said. Given the size of UBS, its collapse would have a “severe impact on the Swiss economy and the global financial system”, the body said.
The government wants to make it harder to avoid military service by opting for a civilian alternative, it said today. As army numbers fall, too many people are switching to the civilian service option, it thinks. Civilian service was originally conceived of as an alternative for conscientious objecters to military service.

Stamped out: ticket validation machines to disappear from Swiss platforms.

More good news for smartphone giants Apple and Samsung: after it previously announced that physical ticket machines will disappear in 2035, the Swiss public transport group “SwissPass Alliance” now plans to phase out ticket-stamping machines – by 2025. The orange boxy-looking things, which people of a certain age might never have even noticed on station platforms, serve the function of validating multi-trip tickets to prove how many times – and when – the tickets have been used.

The Alliance justified the decision not only by pointing to the rise of digital tickets, but also the fact that the machines are getting old; their replacement would involve “considerable investment”, it toldExternal link the Keystone-SDA agency. It’s less clear why it couldn’t afford such an investment: according to its most recent annual reportExternal link, the public transport sector enjoyed record revenues of almost CHF6 billion in 2022. Ticket prices across the country meanwhile rose by an average of 3.7% last December.

Looking for something exciting to do this weekend?

With its steep cliff faces and spectacular scenery, the valley around Lauterbrunnen in canton Bern has for decades been a mecca for base jumpers. Despite occasional opposition from local farmers (who don’t want jumpers dying in their fields) and experienced jumpers (who don’t trust the have-a-go-heroes who sometimes throng the “valley of death”), the sport has over the years become an accepted part of Lauterbrunnen’s culture and tourism sectors.

A recent trend of “tandem” jumps could endanger this, SRFExternal link and the Berner ZeitungExternal link both wrote this week. Such leaps à deux, which allow tourists to feel the thrills while strapped to an experienced jumper, have been spotted in Lauterbrunnen. Due to the high risk, tandems are however “not acceptable”, the municipal president told the Berner Zeitung. That said, they are not (yet) outright banned. The Swiss Base Association is also sceptical, fearing the negative publicity that could follow a tandem accident.