Switzerland Today
Dear Swiss Abroad,
While solidarity and grief for the victims united Switzerland after the New Year's tragedy in Crans-Montana, the anger and criticism that followed deepened existing divisions.
The Valais municipality is also topical for another reason: the 2038 Winter Olympic Games, which could return to Switzerland after 90 years.
Enjoy the read
There is animosity between the linguistic regions after several editorials in the Swiss-German press after the Crans-Montana tragedy did not hold back criticism of canton Valais. The ‘rebel’ canton was portrayed as a land of omerta and clientelism.
The wave of criticism was triggered by the NZZ, a week after the terrible bar fire. “Valais, land of pain and guilt” was the title of the editorial by German-speaking Valais journalist Samuel Burgener. According to him, his canton of origin is characterised by a culture of silence or omerta in which the good health of the tourism sector seems to take precedence over safety.
Other newspapers were no more lenient, speaking of “structural failure”. Blick points out that the image cultivated by Valais as a “rebel” canton, which knows how to fend for itself, has its own rules and nurtures a healthy skepticism towards the federal government, has now come to a painful end.
The president of the Valais government Mathias Reynard reacted to these attacks by speaking of prejudice and stating that “the arrogance of certain Swiss-German media in this period is not up to the situation”. Reynard admits that there are some cases of clientelism that need to be fought against but in his opinion, questioning everyone in responsible roles “does not help to establish the truth”.
Switzerland has officially submitted its bid to host the Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games in 2038. The Swiss press speaks of an ambitious and pioneering vision not limited to a single city or region.
The candidacy curated by the “Switzerland 2038” association has received an important certificate of confidence from the International Olympic Committee (IOC), tvsvizzera.it states today. At the end of November 2023, the IOC had invited the Switzerland to a “privileged dialogue”, a preferential status that gives the country the necessary time to refine its candidature application until the end of 2027, sheltered from competition from other nations.
The project envisages that the event will be distributed across all linguistic regions. A strategy that, according to SRF, could prove successful after the failures of previous attempts that were derailed by local opposition.
Sports competitions are currently scheduled in Geneva, Lausanne, Crans-Montana, Engelberg, Zurich, Zug, Lugano, Lenzerheide and St. Moritz. Lausanne is currently the most eligible city for the opening ceremony and Bern for the closing ceremony. The budget to prepare for the event over the next 10 years, between private (82%) and public (18%) funds, is estimated at CHF2.2 billion. Switzerland has hosted the Winter Olympics twice in St. Moritz in 1928 and 1948.
The high wages paid in Switzerland compared to neighbouring countries have worrying consequences in Germany. In hospitals near the Swiss border, the mortality rate is higher than in the rest of the country due to the exodus of nursing staff.
Underlining this causal link is a study by the Centre for European Economic Research (ZEW) and the IFO Institute.
Life expectancy has increased in Germany in recent years, but has remained stagnant in areas bordering Switzerland which have lost around 12% of nursing staff since 2011 compared to similar districts in the country’s interior.
The affected German regions have started to prioritise patients according to their medical needs and, in particular, to reduce non-urgent surgeries. Each percentage point of the decrease in staffing reduced the intensity of care by about 0.8% per patient, the probability of surgery by 1% and increased the probability of death by 0.4%, the study specifies.
UBS CEO Sergio Ermotti, according to revelations by the Financial Times, plans to quit in April 2027. At the moment, the bank neither confirms nor denies these rumors.
Aleksandar Ivanovic, head of Asset Management at Switzerland’s leading bank, is listed as “one of the most likely” successors to the 65-year-old from Ticino.
Ermotti had previously headed UBS from 2011 to 2020 and was rehired as CEO in 2023 to steer the takeover of Credit Suisse (CS). He had previously said that he would lead the bank “at least” until the full integration of the former competitor.
On the stock market, UBS’s stock gained almost 30% last year and has doubled in value since the acquisition of Credit Suisse. Recently, Ermotti has vocalised his strong opposition to the new and stricter capital requirements wanted by the Federal Council, which he called “extreme and disproportionate”.
According to some rumors, UBS is even considering moving its headquarters abroad to avoid these constraints but Ermotti himself called the idea “nonsense”.
In compliance with the JTI standards
More: SWI swissinfo.ch certified by the Journalism Trust Initiative
