Switzerland Today
Dear Swiss Abroad,
A sheep farmer is missing in the Valais village of Blatten after a landslide on Wednesday. His barn was located outside the official evacuation zone, but it was still buried.
I also look at the Organisation of the Swiss Abroad Congress in Germany and finish today’s briefing with two unwelcome letters for Foreign Minister Ignazio Cassis.
Best wishes from Bern!
Media attention in Switzerland is still focused on the Lötschental valley, where a mudslide buried most of the mountain village of Blatten last week. The cone of debris is enormous and extends beyond the evacuation zone. How could this happen, asks 20 Minuten today.
An expert suspects that it was not a normal landslide. The glacier collapse not only carried debris and ice into the valley but also a lot of melted water from inside the glacier. As a result, the debris reached the valley as a mudslide, which managed to spill beyond the calculated limits.
A 64-year-old sheep farmer, who was presumably with his animals at the time of the landslide, is still missing. It is assumed that he is no longer alive. His barn, which was not in the official evacuation zone, was completely buried.
Florian Willet, who wanted to establish the controversial Sarco suicide capsule in Switzerland, has reportedly killed himself.
Willet, 47, was president of the euthanasia organisation “The Last Resort”.
In September 2024, a seriously ill 64-year-old American woman took her life in Switzerland using the Sarco suicide capsule. Willet, a German resident in Switzerland, was with her in the forest near Schaffhausen.
It has now come to light that Willet is dead. According to sources at the Tages-Anzeiger newspaper, he killed himself in Germany. In order to protect his privacy, no further details are being given.
The public prosecutor’s office of canton Schaffhausen opened criminal proceedings following the death of the American woman, and Willet spent ten weeks in custody. Normally, such proceedings are discontinued when the accused dies, but Sarco has set a precedent in Switzerland, which is debating for the first time whether a self-service suicide capsule is compatible with Swiss euthanasia law.
A spirit of optimism in Germany: the Organisation of the Swiss Abroad (OSA) in Germany has elected its representatives for the Council of the Swiss Abroad.
My colleague Claire Micallef was at the OSA Germany congress in Kassel at the weekend. It was a historic meeting: for the first time the members of the Council of the Swiss Abroad were elected by direct electronic vote. All 62,000 Swiss Abroad of legal age were eligible to vote.
A total of 4,416 made use of their right, a share of 7%. A significant increase, according to Tobias Orth, a member of the OSA International working group in favour of reforming the system. “In 2021, 32 representatives of the 40 Swiss associations with voting rights were elected. Although there is still room for improvement, 4,416 voters is a significant increase,” he said.
Three existing and five new candidates were elected, including a strikingly large number of young people, Claire writes. But age doesn’t matter: it’s commitment that’s important, emphasised Sonja Lengning, president of OSA Germany.
Open criticism of Foreign Minister Ignazio Cassis: former diplomats accuse him of not condemning Israel’s actions in Gaza clearly enough. They are calling for concrete measures – including the recognition of Palestine.
Pressure is growing on Foreign Minister Ignazio Cassis because of his cautious stance on Israel: 55 former Swiss diplomats have written an open letter warning of “genocidal processes” and “ethnic cleansing”. According to Blick, the government wanted to condemn the actions of the Israeli government last week but Cassis was not prepared for this.
In the letter, the former diplomats demand concrete measures: Palestine should be recognised immediately. Switzerland should play an active role at the UN conference in New York in mid-June, which will focus on the concrete implementation of the two-state solution. Former Swiss Abroad parliamentarian Tim Guldimann also signed the letter.
But it’s not just ex-ambassadors who are unhappy, Blick wrote. Foreign ministry staff have also written to Cassis, demanding a clear condemnation of the Israeli military actions and reminding the minister of his core task: the defence of international humanitarian law.
Translated from German by DeepL/ts
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