Switzerland Today

Greetings from Bern,

It’s time to get out your red and white gear. Euro2024, the European Football Championship starts tomorrow, but it isn’t the only sports competition making headlines these days. Switzerland brought home a record gold medal haul from the European Athletics Championships in Rome.

This is a big deal for a country known more for its skills on snow and ice than on the track. Apparently the country seems to be doing something right. As the Keystone-SDA news agency wrote today, Switzerland went from a nobody to a real athletics nation. Next stop, an Olympic gold?

Burger King or Burek King? Keystone-SDA

In the news: sales ban on puff bars, healthcare costs, and a burger trademark battle

• Switzerland’s House of Representatives voted in favour of a motion to ban sales of disposable electronic cigarettes on Wednesday. The government had rejected the motion arguing it was premature.
• Zurich Airport saw significantly more passengers in May 2024 than in the same month last year and exceeded 2019 monthly levels for the first time. 
• Four days after Swiss voters rejected two healthcare initiatives, the Senate agreed to a reform package that seeks to tackle rising healthcare costs. It includes measures for better coordination, confidential pricing models and cheaper medicines.
• Various Swiss government websites and organisations involved in the Ukraine peace summit were the target of cyberattacks on Thursday morning, according to the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC). After an hour, the systems were back to normal.
• Fast-food chain Burek King has lost out to the American giant Burger King after the Federal Administrative Court confirmed the likelihood of confusion between the two brands and upheld the refusal to register the brand. 

A Swiss soldier operates an anti-aircraft gun on the shores of Lake Geneva in 2019. Keystone-SDA

The Swiss Army is taking heat for its massive public relations army…

A Tiktok account, a YouTube channel, a podcast, the list goes on. The Swiss Army is everywhere on social media, reportedExternal link Neue Zürcher Zeitung today.

In 2021, an internal defence department audit found that the army operated some 250 channels on Instagram, YouTube and Twitter. To keep the social media machine running, the defence department has 95 full-time equivalents working in communications, 3.2 more positions than the previous year, and more than 40 positions than ten years ago.

The numbers alone are giving the Swiss media plenty of fodder. It isn’t just numbers though, it’s also the content. Long gone are the days of boring brochures and educational material. The first season of the Swiss Army “Team Army LiveExternal link” show on Youtube, starts with fast-cut videos that look like something out of the “Call of Duty” video game.

The defence department explained themselves by saying that they are “the largest federal department” and, with the army, has “an operational component with a special need for communication”. It must “constantly adapt to the increasing tasks and the growing needs of the target group,” Renato Kalbermatten, head of communications at the defence department, told NZZ.

The army has realised that if it wants to recruit young people, it needs to be where they are and appeal to them in language and images that they understand. But how far should it go to advertise versus inform? And how much of that advertising should glamourise war and fighting?

Swiss soldiers prepare for a ceremony with the Chinese Premier. Keystone-SDA

…but now there’s a real public relations disaster on the horizon.

Just as we learned that the Swiss Army has been on the social media offensive, it is about to go on the defensive. Several media outlets reported this afternoon that the University of Bern will conduct an investigationExternal link into whether gay and lesbian people have suffered discrimination in the Swiss Army.

The investigation emerged from a motion that was agreed by parliament in 2022. Over the next four years, a research team from the university will look at any injustices experienced in the army from the Second World War to today. It will also address the question of whether reparations would be appropriate.

There are already signs that this could be a minefield for the army. There are indications that service booklets used certain codes to refer to gay people that had an impact on their private and professional life beyond the army.

This is the first official commission by Switzerland to examine historical discrimination against gay and lesbian people in the country.