Switzerland Today
Dear Swiss Abroad,
Finding accommodation in Switzerland is increasingly difficult, especially for those who want to live in Geneva, Zug or Zurich.
It’s easier than in the past, however, to find women in professions requiring academic training. This is linked to the greater academic success shown by girls compared to boys.
Today we will also drop by parliament and then talk about a dark chapter that has emerged in the history of a Swiss cosmetics company.
It’s becoming increasingly hard to find housing in Switzerland. The rate of empty dwellings fell by 0.08% in one year to 1%, the Federal Statistical Office (FSO) reported. This is the fifth consecutive annual decline.
On the reference date, June 1, there were 48,000 vacant dwellings across the country. The most pronounced contraction was in Ticino, where the share of housing put on the market, for sale or rent, fell from 2.08% in 2024 to 1.92% this year. But the cantons most affected by the shortage are Geneva (0.34% of vacant homes), Zug (0.42%) and Zurich (0.48%).
According to the Federal Housing Office, the causes include an ageing population, separations, divorces, single-parent families and the arrival of people from abroad for work, study and family reunification.
People also tend to occupy more living space on average. This has risen from 30 square metres per capita in the 1980s to 46 today.
The Swiss cosmetics company Weleda has commissioned an independent and comprehensive investigation into its history during the Nazi period. It did so after a study by Der Spiegel revealed how the company allegedly collaborated with the Third Reich, particularly in the Dachau concentration camp.
The Basel-based company, founded in 1921 by a group that included the father of the anthroposophical movement Rudolf Steiner, allegedly supplied itself with medicinal herbs produced on Nazi-supervised farmland in Dachau using biodynamic methods and forced labour, writes historian Anne Sudrow in her study, commissioned by the Concentration Camp Memorial Site.
In return, Weleda allegedly supplied the camp with an “anti-freeze” cream. The product was allegedly tested on 280-300 prisoners, 80-90 of whom died after being subjected to extreme cold conditions for hours.
“We condemn the atrocities of the Nazi regime in the strongest possible terms. Fascism, anti-Semitism, racism or right-wing extremist ideology have no place in our midst,” Weleda said in a statement, announcing the new investigation. The company had already commissioned a survey on the topic in 2023 but emphasised today that it was “not yet geared to an investigation of all detailed aspects”.
In Switzerland girls outperform boys in school, especially in languages and reading. This is also reflected in the professional sphere, according to new data gathered by the investigative editorial team of the Tamedia Group newspapers.
Tamedia obtained the results of various school performance tests conducted by 50,000 pupils in four cantons (Solothurn, Aargau, Basel City and Basel Country) from 2019 to 2024. While the difference between the sexes is not very marked between the ages of nine and 11, at the age of 15 girls outperform boys by up to the equivalent of a semester in reading and languages. There is parity in natural sciences and technology subjects, while in mathematics boys remain ahead.
According to experts, this is a worldwide trend, which also emerged from the PISA studies, and is partly explained by the lower propensity of adolescent males to read.
According to Tamedia’s editorial staff, this educational success is directly linked to the fact that more and more women in Switzerland are found in professions requiring academic training. For example, while in 2010 a quarter of the positions in cantonal public ministries were occupied by women, today they are the majority. The same applies to the medical profession, with 47% of male doctors compared to 53% of female doctors in 2023.
However, the newspapers point out that in the highest functions of the professional hierarchies women are still under-represented and generally still earn 10% less than men – 20% if they have children.
The House of Representatives today approved, by 151 votes to 31, a commission motion opposing the government’s decision to ban international adoptions.
The government had taken this decision in principle in January, in the meantime calling for a draft law to be drawn up by the end of 2026.
This decision was justified by the fact that in the past there have been numerous irregularities in international adoptions, for example from Sri Lanka. In the most serious cases this involved child trafficking. A study cited by the government pointed out that even with strict adoption law, the risk of abuse could not be excluded.
While acknowledging the possible risk of irregularities, on behalf of the Committee on Legal Affairs, parliamentarian Simone Gianini emphasised that this was not a reason to justify the ban, which he considered “arbitrary”. “In some cases, international adoption is the only option to give a child a future,” he said. However, the motion calls for improving the legal system by strengthening control and transparency mechanisms. The Senate has yet to give its opinion on the matter.
Translated from Italian by DeepL/ts
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