![The four-metre-long painting "Sonntag der Bergbauern" [Sunday of the Mountain Farmers, 1923-24/26] had to be removed by a crane from the German Chancellery in Berlin for the exhibition in Bern.](https://www.swissinfo.ch/content/wp-content/uploads/sites/13/2025/12/01_Pressebild_KirchnerxKirchner.jpg?crop=1165px,0px,1670px,1670px&w=480&ver=8f77363a)
Switzerland Today
Dear Swiss Abroad,
It’s the end of an era for the Swiss press. The last print edition of the free daily newspaper 20Minuten came out today. The tabloid has its critics, but it has undeniably left its mark on the Swiss media landscape.
The rest of today’s news focuses on three proposals that are bound to spark discussion: the introduction of voluntary support troops for the Swiss army, a tax on airline tickets and the Swiss government’s accession to the UN treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.
Season’s greetings!
Today sees the publication of the last edition of the free newspaper 20Minuten, a popular daily read for thousands of Swiss commuters and others since 1999.
It will be the end of “a ritual that has been part of everyday life since the pre-online era: picking up a copy of 20Minuten from the ubiquitous blue newspaper boxes on the streets, writes the Tages-Anzeiger newspaper.
The last print edition of the paper, which will continue to exist exclusively online, also represents the end of the free newspaper phenomenon that has changed the local press environment in Switzerland.
“Initially greeted with scepticism, the newspaper subsidised solely by advertising has turned the rules of the game upside down, forcing all publishers to rethink their strategies in terms of content, design and finance,” says the Tages-Anzeiger.
“A newspaper that we love to detest say some people,” writes Le Temps, but which “was still read by 400,000 people every day”.
Today’s 20Minuten is a commemorative edition that also contains interviews with distinguished personalities, such as Swiss Federal Railways Director Vincent Ducrot and Swiss Communications Minister Albert Rösti.
At a time when the media are experiencing a crisis, Rösti urges companies to invest indirectly in the media via advertising. The press plays a crucial role in the stability of the Swiss political system, a stability which, in turn, is one of the main reasons Switzerland remains attractive for business.
Two- thirds of Swiss residents support the introduction of a tax on airline tickets to subsidise public transport and develop night train connections.
This is the main result of a survey conducted by the demoscope institute gfs.zurich on behalf of the environmental association Actif-trafic. Support for the tax is high (80%) among people over 65.
Slightly more than a third of the respondents believe that the tax should be CHF30 ($38) for short flights and CHF120 for longer distances. In all, 70% believe that it should be higher for journeys that can also be made by train.
In a nationwide vote in 2021, the Swiss rejected the CO2 Act, which also provided for a tax on plane tickets from Switzerland. Parliament then drafted a new version, which has been in force for almost a year, which does not contain such a tax. However, Actif-trafic now plans to launch an initiative next spring to propose an airline tax.
Switzerland must join the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW). This is the main demand of a popular initiative, signed by more than 135,000 people, which was handed to the Federal Chancellery today.
The TPNW was concluded in 2017 and has been in force since 2021. It prohibits the development, testing, production, transfer, possession, use and threat of use of nuclear weapons. Switzerland has decided not to sign it. In its last assessment in March 2024, the Federal Council reiterated that Switzerland’s commitment to nuclear containment is best pursued through the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), which, unlike the NPTW, includes all nuclear powers.
With the initiative, however, the decision could now end up in the hands of the voters. According to a recent poll conducted by the Demoscope institute on behalf of Le Temps, 70% of Swiss are in favour of joining the treaty. The proposal has the support of the majority of centre-right supporters, the French-speaking newspaper points out.
The Federal Council is considering reviving the voluntary armed forces to strengthen the country’s defence capabilities, SRF writes today.
The volunteers, who should mainly be people who have already completed their compulsory military service, would be deployed in times of tension to guard critical infrastructure such as bridges, railways and power plants.
Such troops still exist in Scandinavia and eastern Europe. In Switzerland, volunteer soldiers were active in “local militias” from 1940 to 1967.
The latest proposal is backed by centre and right-wing political circles and opposed by the left. According to Social Democrat Franziska Roth, security and protection tasks should be carried out by the police.
The fifth and final episode of the first series of our podcast “Adieu, merci la Suisse” (in French) / “Ade merci, Schweiz” (in Swiss German) is now available. It talks about maintaining family ties and traditions when living abroad.
When you move abroad, you often leave behind customs that serve as daily reference points. Beyond the borders of your homeland, these traditions become your moorings and sometimes act as ways of passing on culture to your children.
In the French version of this episode, Denise Weber, a Swiss expatriate with a multicultural background, and Sonia Ciotta, a psychologist, talk about maintaining traditions and family ties.
You can watch or listen to the episode on Swissinfo’s free app, SWIplus, or on your favourite podcast platform.
The Advent calendar of Swiss Oddities
Every day until December 24, our newsletter features a surprise article from our Swiss Oddities series – interesting, unusual and sometimes bizarre stories from Switzerland.
In compliance with the JTI standards
More: SWI swissinfo.ch certified by the Journalism Trust Initiative
