Switzerland Today
Dear Swiss Abroad,
The second SBC poll ahead of the November 30 vote shows limited support for the two initiatives presented. And you, dear Swiss Abroad, are following the trend.
A new landslide over Brienz, the departure of three-quarters of UNICEF staff from Geneva and the resurgence of online scams complete this daily briefing.
Enjoy the read!
Both the civic duty and inheritance initiatives are heading for a ‘no’ vote. A large majority of Swiss nationals, both at home and abroad, intend to reject the two texts, according to the second SBC poll conducted by the gfs.bern institute.
The Young Socialists are very likely to suffer a severe setback in the federal vote on November 30. With just over 10 days to go before the election, 68% of the electorate is opposed to the latter’s initiative, which wants a 50% tax on the inheritance of the richest to finance the fight against climate change.
The proposal does not appeal to the diaspora either, even though they are usually more in favour of the environment that Swiss residents. A share of 64% of the Swiss Abroad say they are against the text, 33% support it and 3% are undecided. The forecast also does not look good for the civic duty initiative. The text, which aims to introduce a compulsory citizen service for all Swiss nationals, including women, is now rejected by 64% of the electorate. Among the Swiss Abroad, 62% are against, 34% support it and 4% remain undecided.
The village of Brienz in Graubünden is once again threatened by a risk of landslides. Geologists who monitor the plateau above it have noted a clear acceleration of the movement on part of it.
Experts estimate that 100,000 to 150,000 cubic metres of rock could collapse in the coming days, the municipality of Albula, to which Brienz belongs, wrote in its geological bulletin on Tuesday.
The plateau moves 8 to 10 centimetres per day. Never before had such a rapid movement been measured. If it collapses, the mass could cause a debris flow of up to one million cubic metres. Parts of the village could be affected.
The approximately 80 people living in Brienz were evacuated again in November 2024. In June 2023, a torrent of mud almost buried the village, which had already been evacuated at the time. About 1.7 million cubic metres of material had stopped at its edges.
UNICEF (the United Nations Children’s Fund) will relocate some 300 posts out of the 400 based in Geneva. The foreign ministry confirmed this restructuring on Tuesday evening, report the Tribune de Genève and 24 heures.
The restructuring of the UN body is motivated by an expected sharp drop in revenues. To deal with this, it must generate $39 million in savings per year from 2026.
UNICEF will maintain around 100 posts in Geneva, “concentrating its presence on the Office of Emergency Programmes (EMOPS)”, according to the foreign ministry. The relocated staff will mainly be transferred to Rome, but also to Nairobi and Istanbul.
For Vincent Subilia, director of the Geneva Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CCIG), UNICEF’s departure is “an alarm signal that should lead to a real awareness of the vulnerability of this unique ecosystem”. Facing budget cuts for the last several months, various UN agencies have already relocated or eliminated more than 2,000 positions.
The number of online investment scams has risen sharply in Switzerland since the beginning of the year, according to figures from the Federal Office for Cyber Security (FOCS) published on Tuesday. On Wednesday, the Federal Council also announced that it wants to combat fraudulent websites.
In the first half of 2025, the number of cyber incidents reported to the FOCS remained “stable at a high level”. Around 58% concerned fraud attempts. While alerts related to fraudulent calls have decreased, attempts at online investment scams via ads have increased fivefold.
Targeted people are tricked into investing money on supposedly serious platforms via ads. In order to gain the trust of their victim, hackers impersonate public figures. “The combination of a familiar face, a counterfeit voice and a promise of winning makes the deception more credible,” the OFCS report says.
To combat such problems, the Federal Council adopted a report on the fight against fraudulent websites on Wednesday. While the legal tools already exist to block these sites, they are not used systematically enough. The government wants to intensify cooperation between authorities, police and registry operators, and plans to expand competences to better combat new forms of fraud – also based on international cooperation.
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