Switzerland Today
Dear Swiss Abroad,
Whether you’ve received this briefing via email, on the SWIplus app, or through social media, you definitely haven’t gotten it by post. If, however, we were to start physically sending newsletters, we’d now be able to do it with a “Swiss Abroad” stamp: as of today, dedicated stamps for the country’s diaspora, designed by a young Swiss woman in London, are available, and are very stylish at that. You can get more information about the project hereExternal link.
In the news: Bürgenstock update, holiday emissions, and money laundering.
- Switzerland has invited delegations from 160 countries and organisations to its Ukraine peace conference on June 15-16, it said today. Russia is “at this stage” not one of them. While Swiss authorities say “a peace process without Russia is not possible”, Moscow has thus far shown no interest in attending the Bürgenstock (pictured) talks.
- Some 46% of Swiss adults plan to use the plane to go on holiday this year, according to a survey published today by online comparison service Comparis. A third say they will travel by car and just under 15% will go by train. The survey also found that younger, urban, and higher-earning people are more likely to jet off on hols that others.
- Switzerland’s Money Laundering Reporting Office registered a record number of reports of suspicious activity last year. The total of 11,876 cases represents a rise of 56% on 2023, the MROS said today; 90% came from the banking sector. Digitalisation and a heightened awareness of corruption may have influenced the rise in reports.
Good, bad or obsolete? Capitalism under scrutiny.
As we wrote in Wednesday’s briefing, yesterday was of course Labour Day, also known as International Workers’ Day, or in German, the “Day of Work” (here at SWI swissinfo.ch it was very much a “day of work”; May 1 is a public holiday in just ten of 26 Swiss cantons, and Bern is not one of them). Unsurprisingly it was thus a day to argue about capitalism. And to mark this, Swiss public television, SRF, ran a “statement checkExternal link” – in which they asked a trade unionist and a liberal think-tanker to give their thoughts on common tropes about the free market economy.
While they didn’t fact-check the slogan of Zurich demonstrators – “capitalism makes you sick!” – they did cover a range of systemic sound-bites: “capitalism oppresses”, “capitalism is bad for the environment”, “capitalism deepens inequalities”, “capitalism spurs technological progress”. Predictably, the two interviewees were fairly opposed on such questions. Yet one statement they almost agreed on was more surprising: “capitalism is an obsolescent model”. For the trade unionist, this obsolescence is already in motion, while his market-minded rival said he was “personally concerned” about attacks on the liberal social order.
Is capitalism on the way out? Even the business-friendly Neue Zürcher Zeitung (NZZ) is concerned in an editorialExternal link today about the St Gallen Symposium – a long-established annual “intergenerational” conference. The NZZ reports on a survey of “young leaders”, done in the lead-up to this year’s symposium, which shows a shift in perspective: “a majority of the younger generation reckons the necessary steps to make the economy sustainable can only be taken as part of another economic and political system,” the newspaper writes. Around half think a collapse of the current system is unavoidable; not many more believe that new technologies can stem climate change.
Even more worryingly (for the NZZ) is that most respondents also turned the whole idea of capitalism on its head: they say shareholder profits should be less important for companies than social and environmental goals – a stance which the survey interprets as hinting at “a general disillusionment towards market-based solutions”. Given that the University of St Gallen, and its symposium, is a traditional hotbed of managers and “future leaders”, what does this mean for entrepreneurship and the free market? The NZZ author thinks the shift in attitudes is based on a misunderstanding of economic realities; May 1 supporters would perhaps see it as a vindication of long years of demonstrations.
From class struggles to ocean battles: a day for tuna.
The celebrations never stop: after the anti-capitalist struggles of Labour Day, today – May 2 – is World Tuna Day, the Swiss News Agency Keystone-SDA told us this morning. Rather than a bid to encourage you to eat more healthy fish, the day is again about the ravages of consumer-based capitalism: “as a result of the amazing [nutritional] qualities of tuna, the fish are threatened by overwhelming demand”, the UN writesExternal link. And so, the General Assembly voted in 2016 to officially observe this annual day, to highlight “the importance of conservation management […] to prevent tuna stocks from crashing”.
As for what this means for you as a consumer, the UN is less clear. Take a break from the bluefin for 24 hours? (You can always start again tomorrow, while observing World Press Freedom Day.) As for Switzerland, it’s also unclear how much the country contributes to the problem. On average, the Swiss eat 1.3kg of tuna per year – it’s the most popular fish in the country along with salmon. For a landlocked nation of course, this means plenty of imports: but according to a report last yearExternal link, 80% of Swiss-eaten tuna at least comes with the “MSC” sustainability label – the highest figure for any country in the world.
Does Switzerland have a blind spot when it comes to racism?
Despite the level of media attention for anti-Muslim or anti-Semitic attacks in Switzerland, in reality anti-black incidents are five to six times more likely to be reported. Whether it’s fans making monkey noises during football games, or racial profiling by police officers, such racism is present in Switzerland – and is for various reasons also historically anchored, experts say. But is racism against black people in the country taken seriously enough? And how can it best be tackled? Have your say in this week’s edition of our “dialogue” platform.
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