Switzerland Today
Dear Swiss Abroad,
Canton Basel City is satisfied with how Swiss emigrants have been voting online – so much so that citizens at home should now also get the possibility to vote digitally in the canton.
On Thursday, we also look at the ongoing heatwave, the mess surrounding F-35 fighter jets and why there are not so many centenarians in Switzerland.
After a good experience with Swiss Abroad voters, the general population of the canton of Basel City should be able to vote online by the second half of 2026 – as long as the local parliament approves the necessary CHF6.7 million ($8.3 million) credit.
The Swiss Abroad led the way: thanks to their big participation via e-voting, Basel City now wants to widen e-voting to the general population. A year from now, citizens in the canton should be able to cast their votes online.
“The experience of the Swiss Abroad has been very good,” Barbara Schüpbach, head of the canton’s chancellery, told SRF’s regional radio. Some 68% of those who participated from abroad in the last vote did so online.
As a result, the service is now to be widened, and should be ready for the Swiss-based population as early as the second half of 2026 – provided Basel City’s parliament approves the CHF6.7 million e-voting budget for the next ten years.
Federal rules say no more than 30% of the cantonal electorate may participate via e-voting; in Basel City, preference will be given to whichever voters register first. But authorities are not expecting a rush. In pilot municipalities for e-voting in St Gallen, some 15% of eligible voters registered at the beginning, then the proportion slowly increased, said Schüpbach. As for security concerns, she says people trust the Swiss Post’s e-voting system.
Class in the swimming pool? A heatwave is disrupting the start of term in Switzerland. The country’s top teacher has called for better ventilation and air conditioning in schools.
Switzerland is sweltering. While it often rained during the summer holidays, for many the start of school has now come amid a heatwave – and as a result, the start of term is a bit different.
In Geneva – where school starts next week – primary school pupils don’t have to go if there is a heat warning, 24 Heures writes. Each canton and each school decides for itself how to deal with the heat. Some children can even spend the start of term outdoors or even in the swimming pool if classroom temperatures are too high.
But with hot days set to increase in the future, such solutions are stop-gaps, according to Dagmar Rösler, the head of the umbrella organisation of Swiss teachers. “You can’t spend the whole lesson in the swimming pool; you have to teach lessons,” she told SRF. Rösler wants to prioritise ventilation and air conditioning systems in new school buildings or renovations – at the moment they are sometimes cancelled due to the cost.
In addition to structural adjustments to buildings, Rösler also suggests considering postponing or extending the summer holidays. Canton Basel City is currently thinking about this. However, the timing of heatwaves is hard to predict – this year they came just before and just after the holidays.
What will happen with the F-35 fighter jets Switzerland ordered from the US? With the price set to rise, the defence ministry is wondering about buying fewer jets; left-wing groups want the purchase to be shelved completely.
As we reported yesterday, the US has no plans to deliver the 36 fighter jets for an initially mooted fixed price of CHF6 billion. Exactly how much more expensive the jets will become is not clear.
What now? Defence Minister Martin Pfister is examining options, the Tages-Anzeiger notes. For example, the number of jets could be reduced if Swiss airspace could be secured with fewer aircraft. Or the additional costs could be met with fresh credit.
And do citizens now have to vote again? Just under five years ago, the jets were approved with a margin of just 8,000 votes – and with the understanding that the price tag was CHF6 billion. For Pfister another vote isn’t necessary, if his ministry manages to bear the additional costs itself.
The left-wing Social Democrats and Greens, on the other hand, are calling for the purchase to be cancelled. “Better a difficult ending than unending difficulty,” said Social Democrat co-head Cédric Wermuth. Centre-right parties meanwhile want to stick with the order for the F-35s.
Negotiations with the US have now twice failed miserably – on fighter jets and tariffs. Pfister emphasised this week that there was no connection between the two dossiers. He was unable to judge whether orders would still be placed in the US in future, but said: “they are not so reliable when it comes to customs duties”:
Switzerland has a comparatively low proportion of 100-year-olds, even though it has one of the highest life expectancies in the world. How come?
Would you like to live to 100? Some places seem more conducive than others. Monaco, Hong Kong or Guadeloupe, for example, have the highest proportion of centenarians worldwide. Switzerland ranks 37th, with 23 people aged 100 and over per 100,000. In Monaco there are 949, in Hong Kong 124 and in Guadeloupe 100.
Why are there so few 100-year-olds in Switzerland?” asks Blick. Researcher François Höpflinger (himself 77) explains that these figures are not related to life expectancy. You have to look at the population as a whole, he says. Monaco is home to many older millionaires, and “rich people live longer than poorer people”.
Another factor is migration. In countries where many young people leave, the proportion of elderly people increases. Switzerland, on the other hand, is a country with a high level of immigration of relatively younger people, which reduces the proportion of 100-year-olds. But it is catching up: there are many more centenarians today than 50 years ago. And as the figures show, it should become more likely to reach 100 in the coming years.
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