Switzerland Today
Good morning, Swiss of the world,
This morning Interior Minister Elisabeth Baume-Schneider presented Switzerland’s first national strategy against racism and anti-Semitism. The timing is striking: on Thursday Swiss public broadcaster RTS published new details on the Lausanne police scandal.
Last summer’s revelations about WhatsApp groups in which officers exchanged racist, antisemitic, sexist and homophobic messages caused a public outcry. The newly revealed material confirms just how serious the exchanges were.
One in six individuals in Switzerland says they have experienced racial discrimination in the past five years. In response, the government is launching its first national strategy against racism and anti-Semitism.
The strategy, known as the “4×4 model”, focuses on four areas: better recording of racist and anti-Semitic acts; stronger protection for victims; improved prevention within institutions; and broader societal engagement. It was presented this morning by Interior Minister Elisabeth Baume-Schneider,
Discrimination affects people based on their real or perceived nationality, ethnic origin, skin colour or religion. Its consequences are wide-ranging: reduced access to employment and housing, financial and health impacts, and social exclusion.
The launch comes as Swiss public television RTS revealed the contents of 2,500 pages of WhatsApp exchanges between roughly 50 Lausanne police officers. Nearly half made racist or anti-Semitic remarks, none of which were challenged internally. Several officers have since left the force, but others remain in service.
Alfred Gantner is the name dominating Swiss politics this week. On Sunday, the SonntagsZeitung revealed that the billionaire from canton Zug was present when Economics Minister Guy Parmelin met US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick in early September.
A spokesperson for the economics ministry confirmed that Gantner took part in high-level meetings between Parmelin, Lutnick and US Trade Representative Marisa Lago. Gantner also told Swiss public broadcaster SRF he was contacted in August by the federal administration and asked to mobilise his long-standing US network.
He later joined the delegation of Swiss business leaders received by President Donald Trump in the Oval Office on November 4. A committed Mormon and largely unknown to the wider public until now, Gantner has since been thrust into the media spotlight.
But this unusually close alignment between diplomacy and private business is drawing criticism. “Alfred Gantner has no democratic legitimacy to sit at the negotiating table for Switzerland,” said Green Party parliamentarian Christine Badertscher. Concerns are also coming from the Centre Party: “In the customs dispute he wants to save Switzerland, but at the same time he is mercilessly attacking our successful bilateral path with the EU,” said Centre Party parliamentarian Marianne Binder.
Austria and Italy are actively trying to lure international organisations away from Geneva, taking advantage of the pressures facing international Geneva since the sharp reduction of US contributions under President Trump.
“They are very active,” said Beatrice Ferrari, director of the international relations department of canton Geneva, in comments to Tamedia newspapers. Austria is pursuing a long-standing “headquarters policy” favouring Vienna, while Italy is promoting Turin and Rome, where UNICEF has already transferred 300 positions.
The International Labour Organization (ILO) is reportedly considering a move from Geneva to Turin, where operating costs are lower. The United Nations agency in Geneva faces severe financial difficulties: 500 of its 3,500 posts are at risk. Moving, however, would mean giving up more than CHF2 million ($2.5 million) in annual Swiss subsidies.
“We will certainly lose more jobs. It’s inevitable,” Ferrari warned. A CHF270 million support package for international Geneva is still awaiting parliamentary approval.
Verena Nold, the departing head of Santésuisse, has outlined her vision of the future healthcare system. She would place hospitals at the end of the care chain and introduce telemedicine on a large scale, she told CH Media.
Nold advocates the widespread introduction of telemedicine throughout the country, and would ensure that there is a broad network of pharmacies, general practitioners and paediatricians. In her view, hospitals should be at the end of the care chain. “An efficient outpatient care network could solve 80% of health problems,” she said in an interview with German-language newspapers.
The departing head of the association of Swiss health insurers would also abolish cantonal sovereignty over healthcare and introduce six major healthcare regions. Each region would be subject to a compulsory healthcare distribution formula, which would determine, for example, the optimum number of primary care doctors or specialists per 1,000 inhabitants.
A “functional electronic patient file” would be crucial, she adds, lamenting the failure of the earlier rollout. The main problems, she says, were that the system was not mandatory and was far too complex to implement. In her view, the main problem was that it was not made compulsory for doctors, pharmacies and patients. “What’s more, it was very complicated to organise,” she says.
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Translated from French using DeepL/amva/ts
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