Switzerland Today
Dear Swiss Abroad,
The media are rallying to publicise the French justice system's call for witnesses in a sordid case of pedophilia and murder that also affects Switzerland.
On a more positive note, Franjo von Allmen achieved a historic victory by winning a third gold medal during a single Olympic Games. Only three other skiers had accomplished this feat before him.
Also today, we reveal the topics for the nationwide vote of June 14.
Warm greetings from Bern
Franjo von Allmen won a third gold medal at the Olympic Games in Milan-Cortina, this time in the super-G. Marco Odermatt won bronze.
Starting with bib number 7, Franjo von Allmen set the best time with a lead of 0.13 seconds over the American silver medallist Ryan Cochran-Siegle. Marco Odermatt was tenth to start, but was beaten by 0.28 seconds. The Nidwaldian did not hide his disappointment in the finish area.
Franjo von Allmen has achieved a historic harvest. The Bernese skier is the fourth Alpine skier to win three gold medals at the same Olympic Games after Austria’s Toni Sailer in 1956 in Cortina, France’s Jean-Claude Killy in 1968 in Grenoble and Croatia’s Janica Kostelic in 2002 in Salt Lake. He also became the first Swiss to win a super-G at the Olympics.
The French justice system on Tuesday launched a call for witnesses after the indictment of a septuagenarian suspected of aggravated rape and sexual assault of 89 minors in several countries, including Switzerland. The man also admitted to the murder of his mother and his aunt, who lives in Switzerland.
The case came to the court in 2023, when the nephew of the accused handed over USB sticks to the gendarmerie on which “obviously reprehensible things” were saved. The police discovered “memoirs” of decades of sexual relations with boys aged 13 to 17 in 10 countries, including Switzerland. The accused Jacques Leveugle was hired as a tutor in Switzerland.
The call for witnesses aims to unearth the unidentified victims, some of whom appear only by their first or last name, explained Serge Procédés , the commander in charge of the case. This is also the reason why the name of the suspect has been released. In addition, the statute of limitations would exclude “a priori” acts committed before 1993.
The septuagenarian also admitted to having voluntarily killed his mother in 1974, when she was suffering from terminal cancer, and his aunt, a French-Swiss woman who lived in Biel. These two murders are the subject of a separate investigation.
The Swiss will vote on two items in the federal vote on June 14. The Swiss People’s Party’s “No to a Switzerland of 10 million!” initiative and the reform of the civilian service will be put to the people, the Federal Council decided on Wednesday.
With its initiative, the right-wing Swiss People’s Party is calling for stricter immigration restrictions so that Switzerland’s permanent resident population does not exceed 10 million people by 2050. The proponents want the government to take measures as soon as the population exceeds 9.5 million. The Federal Council and Parliament are opposed to the text, without a counter-proposal.
This election represents one of the major issues in Swiss politics this year. As a last resort, the initiative could force the government to terminate the free movement agreement with the European Union. This would call into question the package of agreements negotiated between Switzerland and the EU to stabilise their relations. The campaign promises to be intense and both sides will invest a lot of resources in it.
The second vote concerns the tightening of the conditions of access to civilian service. The reform, adopted last September by Parliament, aims to reduce the number of people who leave the army for civilian service. The aim is to ensure that civilian service remains an exception, while strengthening the army’s workforce.
Defence Minister Martin Pfister wants to make advance payments to obtain air defence systems more quickly. And the army once again grounded its 238 M113 grenadier tanks due to technical defects.
The order books of arms companies are full to bursting. In order to ensure that the Alpine nation is as high on the waiting list as possible, Martin Pfister wants to pay up to two-thirds of the purchase price for air defence equipment up front as a deposit.
However, the defence ministry does not have the necessary budget to do so. For this reason, the Federal Council wants to temporarily increase VAT by 0.8 percentage points from 2028. According to Blick, this project would have “no chance” in parliament.
In addition, on Tuesday, the Swiss Armed Forces banned all 238 M113 grenadier tanks from operations due to a technical defect that could lead to a loss of steering and braking ability. The presumed cause of the problem would come from a defective part that would have been installed during the last overhaul, says the army. The same measure had already been taken in 2023.
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