Switzerland Today
Dear Swiss Abroad,
the Paris Olympic Games open tomorrow. For once, football will take a backseat to the ennobling human ambitions of “Citius, Altius, Fortius” or “faster, higher, stronger”. Swiss athletes will be there for the symbolic opening ceremony and the more serious business of attempting to win medals.
In the news: Olympic flag-bearers, a dead model in Bangkok and national day speeches and fireworks.
Sports shooter Nina Christen and mountain-biker Nino Schurter will be the Swiss delegation’s flag-bearers at the opening ceremony of the Paris Olympics on Friday, Swiss Olympic has announced.
A Swiss model of Hong Kong origin has been killed in Thailand’s capital Bangkok. Police suspect the 24-year-old’s husband of stabbing her to death in her home in the south-east of the city. The Swiss foreign ministry confirmed the death but did not provide any other details.
On a more positive note, August 1 is not far away and the Federal Council are keeping their speechwriters busy. Together they will deliver 19 speeches on Swiss National Day at home and abroad, with Albert Rösti delivering seven himself.
According to a survey, half of Swiss consider fireworks to be an important part of the August 1 national holiday, with the French-speakers most crazy about them. However, a majority are against fireworks being set off by private individuals.
Trucker festival: A slice of Americana in Interlaken
At Swissinfo, we are used to bringing attention to Swissness abroad. However, this time my colleagues Benjamin von Wyl and Vera Leysinger take you to Interlaken that hosted the largest trucker festival in Europe. The festival grounds were filled with monster trucks, cowboy hats and people devouring corn dogs.
Like the Swiss Abroad, festival goers shared a sense of nostalgia of their time in the United States like their work on Florida’s orange farms or driving through the expansive Midwest.
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