The week in Switzerland
Dear Swiss Abroad,
“I’m not sure it shows Switzerland at its best.” That was a former Swiss ambassador commenting on the group of businessmen who travelled to the White House bearing gifts. But is it corruption, as some people think?
Also this week the latest Swiss wage survey was published. Is it good news? It depends…
Are the Swiss CEOs who offered US President Donald Trump a Rolex and a gold bar during their discussions on tariffs guilty of corruption? Two Swiss parliamentarians have filed a criminal complaint with the Office of the Attorney General (OAG).
“The credibility of our institutions, respect for the rule of law and Switzerland’s international reputation are at stake,” Raphaël Mahaim and Greta Gysin, both from the left-wing Green Party, wrote in a seven-page letter to the OAG, seen by Swiss public broadcaster RTS.
Earlier this month the heads of six large Swiss companies (MSC, Rolex, Mercuria, Partners Group, MKS and Richemont) travelled to the White House – “not with empty hands” as Blick pointed out on Thursday – in an attempt to convince Trump that a bilateral trade agreement would significantly benefit both countries. Mahaim told RTS on Thursday that the question was whether the CEOs had breached the Criminal Code by trying to bribe a foreign agent.
“This unreal scene witnessed by Switzerland and the whole world, with industry leaders showering the American president with gifts of indecent value […] – has what was unthinkable just a few years ago become the norm?” he asked. “It’s like being in the Middle Ages – lords who kiss the monarch’s hands and literally cover him in gold to obtain a favour! In our societies, in the 21st century, these are things we don’t want to see.”
On Thursday the Financial Times wrote that “Swiss euphoria at securing lower US trade tariffs has given way to a backlash over ‘oligarch diplomacy’”.
“There’s a sense from some in Switzerland that this was very close to corruption,” former Swiss ambassador Daniel Woker told the FT. “I’m not sure it shows Switzerland at its best. It shows wheeling and dealing, but that’s not how we like to think of ourselves as a pillar of well-organised, lawful international relations.”
The question now is whether the OAG will take up the case. If it does, it could initiate an investigation. The case could then end up before the Federal Criminal Court.
The median monthly wage in Switzerland rose to CHF7,204 ($8,950) for a full-time job in 2024. This compared with CHF6,788 in 2022, according to the latest Federal Statistical Office (FSO) survey.
The FSO highlights significant differences across sectors and regions. In Zurich, for example, the median wage – when half the workforce earns less and half earns more – is CHF7,502; in Ticino it is CHF5,708.
“It sounds like good news,” said Swiss public radio, SRF, in an analysis on Tuesday. “Yes, wages have risen. But they haven’t risen very much. And above all, there are still very big differences between sectors.”
Indeed, sectors with high added value pay considerably more, for example pharmaceuticals (CHF10,159), banking (CHF10,723) and tobacco (CHF14,304). At the bottom end are retail (CHF5,214), accommodation (CHF4,715), catering (CHF4,744) and personal services (CHF4,496).
“The fact is that more than 10% of employees have to make do with a so-called low wage. This is a gross monthly wage of less than CHF4,683,” SRF said. “Making ends meet on such a wage is tough.”
A month after seven wounded children from the Gaza Strip were taken in, 13 more children are on their way to Switzerland to be treated in Swiss hospitals, Foreign Minister Ignazio Cassis announced on Wednesday.
The children and their families are currently on their way from Gaza to Switzerland, but for security reasons Cassis did not specify where they are, Swiss public television RTS reported on Wednesday. Around 50 relatives are accompanying the injured.
Switzerland welcomed the first seven children and their 27 relatives at the end of October. As soon as they arrived in Switzerland, they were taken to university and cantonal hospitals around the country. The children suffered from war injuries and needed highly specialised medical care.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), around 15,000 people, including 4,000 children, need to be evacuated from the war zone to receive medical care.
Also on Wednesday Cassis said Switzerland would allocate CHF23 million ($28 million) to improve the humanitarian situation in Gaza, address the needs of children, strengthen Palestinian institutions and promote regional stability.
Jamaican reggae legend Jimmy Cliff, who died this week aged 81, once put on an “unforgettable free concert” in Zurich on June 30, 1980, the Neue Zürcher Zeitung (NZZ) reported.
Cliff, star of the 1972 film The Harder They Come, whose soundtrack helped bring reggae to a global audience, was playing at the Montreux Jazz Festival the following week and found himself in Zurich. “Rumour had it he wanted to get some weed at what was then the Autonomous Youth Centre Zurich (AJZ) and decided to give a free concert there,” the NZZ said. The concert “had a political character simply because he held it in the AJZ”.
At the time, the conservative and seemingly orderly city of Zurich was turned upside down by months of violent rioting and street battles with the police. It was also pulsating to the heavy beat of reggae, said the NZZ, remembering how “the dark bass made the city shake”. At his concert at the AJZ, Cliff “enchanted the unruly youth of Zurich with his cheerful manner”, it said.
“The audience celebrated his performance as respect from the ‘Third World’ for the protest of the ‘First’, as recognition of a revolt that didn’t really fit in with this city. In any case, this place, whose idealism was soon destroyed by addicts, dealers and pimps, has never been as peaceful and cheerful as it was that day.”
The week ahead
On Sunday the Swiss are voting on two national issues (inheritance tax and compulsory civic duty) and many local ones. Swissinfo will bring you all the main results and analysis.
The Swiss are also getting into festive mood, with Christmas markets opening around the country. On Thursday things get going in Lucerne and Biel/Bienne.
On Saturday it’s the St Nicholas procession through Fribourg and the Course de l’Escalade in Geneva, the largest race of its kind in Switzerland. As if that’s not enough, it’s also the Thuner Chlouse-Schwümme, in which about 200 people dressed as Father Christmas jump into the River Aare in Thun (for a good cause).
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