Switzerland Today
Dear Swiss Abroad,
Relations between Switzerland and Austria are long-standing and marked by conflict. But these differences are no longer confined to the battlefield or the ski slopes – they have now reached gastronomy.
Today’s selection of Swiss news also includes the opening of a terrorism trial, the influx of young Ukrainians and a record number of company bankruptcies.
Switzerland has recently seen a significant increase in applications for S protection status. According to data from the State Secretariat for Migration (SEM), these applications come from around 1,000 young Ukrainians aged between 18 and 22.
At the end of August, the number of applications per week could still be counted on the fingers of one hand. Then, from September onwards, the curve began to rise. A record was reached in October, with 185 applications in a single week.
The SEM cannot really explain this increase and stresses that it is “not possible to draw general conclusions about individual reasons”. However, it points out that this does not seem to be linked to a desire to escape military obligations, as the age of mobilisation in Ukraine is currently set at 25.
Switzerland is not an isolated case. The influx of young Ukrainians has also been noted in several European countries. According to the SonntagsZeitung, around 100,000 of them have crossed the Polish border in the past two months. In Germany, an estimated 1,800 young people are now arriving every month.
The opening of a terrorism-related trial today is of interest to most of the Swiss media. The Federal Criminal Court in Bellinzona is examining the case of two young men suspected of supporting a terrorist organisation in Kosovo.
The charges contained in the indictment issued by the Office of the Attorney General of Switzerland (OAG) are serious. The two men, who live in the Lake Geneva region, are accused of having collected thousands of francs in Geneva between 2016 and 2022 for an alleged terrorist organisation in Kosovo called the Viti Brothers.
According to the OAG, this is a radical group with between 40 and 50 members. It claims to be part of the Salafist current of Islam and adheres to the ideology of the Islamic State group. Some of its members have already been convicted in Kosovo and Macedonia for fighting alongside the terrorist organisation. One group’s plan is to establish a caliphate in a region of Kosovo.
The money collected by the two men on trial was allegedly used to buy weapons and ammunition, to bribe Kosovar judges and to help a defendant escape justice. The two men face up to ten years in prison, and one of them faces deportation from Switzerland.
Times are tough for Emmental, one of Switzerland’s best-known cheeses. Already facing falling sales and rising production costs, Swiss Emmental producers are struggling to protect their label.
With a protected designation, it would no longer be possible to produce this cheese abroad under the name Emmental, which is so named because it originates from the valley of the river Emme in canton Bern. But the countries that also make this cheese, mainly Germany, France, the Netherlands, Austria and Poland, do not want to hear about a protected designation.
In their view, “Emmental” is a generic term that has been used for a long time and should not be reserved for Switzerland. Resistance comes in particular from Austria, which produces some 14,000 tonnes of Emmental every year. The Kronen Zeitung tabloid even recently spoke of a “cheese war” between the two countries.
The European Commission found in favour of the European producer countries and ruled that they could continue to use the designation. But Switzerland has lodged an appeal, and it is now up to the European Court of Justice to decide.
The Swiss economy is considered very resilient in a gloomy global economic climate. But there are several signs that it too is slowing down. Today several media outlets reported that business bankruptcies had reached a record level.
According to a recent analysis by consultants Dun & Bradstreet, 6,274 insolvency proceedings have been opened against companies since the start of the year. This represents an increase of 40% on the previous year.
This increase is due in part to a change in the Federal Debt Enforcement and Bankruptcy Act. Since January 1, public creditors such as the tax authorities and social insurance companies have been systematically required to enforce their outstanding debts through bankruptcy proceedings. Previously, they could do so by taking legal action, which allowed over-indebted companies to continue trading.
But this change in the law should not obscure the fact that the economic situation in Switzerland is deteriorating. “This development shows that the reform mainly affects companies that were already facing liquidity problems or structural difficulties,” notes the study.
Translated from French by DeepL/ts
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