Switzerland Today
Dear Swiss Abroad,
Donald Trump has been back in the White House for 100 days. Today, the Swiss media look back at the start of his term of office, which has been marked by an avalanche of decrees, shock announcements and reversals on tariffs.
While Trump is making headlines in some newspapers, others have chosen not to give too much space to the man who is shaking up the world geopolitical order.
Enjoy the read!
Today the government decided to submit the agreements with the European Union to an optional referendum, a simple majority of the people. Reaction was swift.
The package of agreements between Switzerland and the European Union should only be adopted by a majority of the people, and not by a double majority of the people and the cantons. After deliberations that began in June 2024, the government finally reached a decision today. However, parliament will have the final say on the matter.
For the government, it is above all a question of consistency with past practice, since the optional referendum was used for bilateral agreements I and II. It also considers that this is the most constitutionally sound and politically viable solution, as it explained in a press release.
“It is shocking to see the extent to which our direct democracy is being undermined,” said Thomas Aeschi, leader of the parliamentary group of the right-wing Swiss People’s Party, in reaction to the government’s decision.
“100 days of sound and fury”, “100 days of Trump – 1,000 redundancies”: the Swiss press is taking stock of the first 100 days of US President Donald Trump’s second term in office. Some media have devoted a special page to it, but many have chosen not to make it their front page.
“The Trump years will be very good for Switzerland,” says Ed McMullen, US ambassador to Switzerland during Donald Trump’s first term, in Blick. A close friend of the American president, McMullen praises Trump’s leadership and the effectiveness of his migration policy. McMullen claims the economic situation will be turned around, but that this will take more than three months.
L’Agefi lists five ideas to help the Swiss economy absorb the shock of Trump’s tariffs. The business paper suggests the use of short-time working to avoid mass redundancies, financial support along the lines of Covid credits, a reduction in bureaucracy, a reduction in taxation and a brake on the size of the administration.
The dailies of the Tamedia press group report on the impact of Trump’s austerity programme on Swiss NGOs. In particular, they note a drastic reduction in funding for these organisations, which is jeopardising certain projects. A thousand redundancies have also occurred in NGOs (including 65 job cuts in Switzerland), most of them due to the cuts made by the United States.
Switzerland’s “unhealthy” dependence on electricity could lead to a huge blackout like the one in Spain, warns Stéphane Genoud, professor of energy management at the HES-SO Valais, in Tamedia’s French-language newspapers.
Genoud points out that 30% of the electricity consumed in Switzerland in winter comes from Europe. “If European production is no longer sufficient to cover the entire country, negotiations will be very difficult, as everyone will be preoccupied with their own needs,” he warns.
“Since the energy crisis linked to the war in Ukraine, the risk of a blackout has been taken seriously by the federal and cantonal authorities,” he says. However, he deplores the fact that at local level the municipalities have not done all the work.
Genoud recommends that we “act very quickly”, by speeding up the development of photovoltaic energy, implementing the hydropower projects currently under study and installing 1,000 wind turbines across the country. In his view, however, nuclear power is not a solution, as it takes 30 years for a new power station to produce energy.
The trade in “golden visas” is booming in Switzerland, according to an investigation by Tamedia newspapers. The controversial practice allows wealthy foreigners to legally “buy” a residence permit in the country.
There are currently 496 people in Switzerland with gold visas. That’s 92 more than in 2023, an increase of 22% in just two years. The Swiss cantons offer their right of residence for between CHF250,000 ($300,000) and CHF1 million in tax per year.
Wealthy Russians continue to be the most frequent beneficiaries of such residence permits, despite the war in Ukraine. More and more golden visas are now being issued to people from China, the United States and the United Kingdom. The best-known case is that of British singer Robbie Williams, who lives in canton Bern.
These investment-based residency programmes have become increasingly controversial, particularly since the start of the war in Ukraine. In recent years, several countries have abandoned the practice. This is particularly true of the UK and Ireland.
Adapted from French by DeepL/ts
In compliance with the JTI standards
More: SWI swissinfo.ch certified by the Journalism Trust Initiative
