Switzerland Today
Dear Swiss Abroad,
Defence Minister Martin Pfister has inherited a delicate mission: to get the many projects in difficulty back on track. But the assessment presented on Thursday shows that this is still far from being accomplished.
And if James Bond had to have a country of choice, it would probably be Switzerland: today's news illustrates the extent to which spies seem to operate with astonishing freedom.
Happy reading
Several of the army’s projects are facing delays and cost overruns. On Thursday, the defence ministry provided an update on the current status and the picture is rather bleak.
The situation is not looking good for the acquisition of the new F-35 fighter jet. The funds allocated to this project will have to be increased. First, Washington refuses to guarantee a fixed price for the purchase of the aircraft. Secondly, the necessary extensions of military airfields will also cost much more than expected.
The situation is not much better for the Patriot air defense systems. The United States has informed Switzerland that it has changed its priorities and will hand over the systems to Ukraine first. Switzerland will therefore have to be patient: the ministry admits that it does not have reliable information on the date and volume of deliveries or on possible additional costs related to the expected delays.
The replacement of the now obsolete Florako airspace surveillance system also continues to drag on. The ministry says that negotiations were conducted a posteriori with Thales, the French company that is to supply the new system. Towards the end of 2025, however, it became clear that the project was in danger of going off the rails. Discussions are underway with the various parties to find solutions.
Switzerland remains a land of espionage, as new media investigations reveal. Swiss parliamentarians are increasingly targeted, while China is reportedly putting pressure on members of the Tibetan and Uyghur communities to spy on their peers.
The Federal Palace is not spared, RTS revealed on Thursday. “I sometimes heard cracking sounds on the phone. I was told that this could indeed be an indication that I was being tapped,” says Social Democrat senator Franziska Roth. “It starts with the presence of people in front of your home, who you don’t know if they have good intentions or not,” said Evangelical Party MP Nik Gugger, who filed a complaint against persons unknown. While the law on intelligence gathering is being revised, some voices are calling for more firmness.
Former Russian KGB officer Sergei Zhirnov believes that the suspicions raised by the parliamentarians are “perfectly credible”. In his view, Swiss laws concerning Russia or its nationals and companies established in Switzerland may be of interest to the intelligence services, but he notes that “Russian spies in Switzerland are more likely to spy on their foreign colleagues from major countries, including the United States, in international organisations”.
The media also mention Chinese espionage. SRF reports that Tibetan and Uyghur organisations are calling on the government to take action against pressure from Beijing. China is reportedly trying to get members of these communities living in Switzerland to spy on their own compatriots, as revealed by the Federal Council a year ago.
A decision of the Federal Court is striking. A Filipino worker, exploited for several years as a domestic worker in the basement of a luxury chalet in Gstaad, is facing deportation from Switzerland.
His ordeal began in 2011, when he joined his sister to work for a wealthy Saudi businessman. In an investigation by Republik, he describes trying working conditions: permanent availability, almost total absence of rest, and a salary of barely CHF300 per month. His sister also claims sexual abuse.
The situation continued for five years, until the Filipino national claimed the wages he believes he is owed. He was then dismissed on the spot, losing his job, his home and his right of residence. His work permit was indeed an exceptional permit, linked exclusively to a single employer: he could neither change jobs nor resign without losing his residence permit.
The Federal Court ruled that this type of permit, which binds an employee entirely to his employer is contrary to federal law. The State Secretariat for Migration has therefore had to change its practice to allow their holders to change employers. But this illegality is not enough to guarantee the extension of the Filipino worker’s permit: the judges consider that his integration remains insufficient in view of the length of his stay, particularly in social and linguistic terms.
In terms of justice, translations can turn a case upside down. The Italian Supreme Court has just overturned the conviction of Swiss citizen Stephan Schmidheiny to nine and a half years in prison in the Eternit case, due to a lack of translation of the judgment.
In April 2025, Stephan Schmidheiny was sentenced to nine and a half years in prison by the Turin Court of Appeal for manslaughter. The trial followed the deaths of 91 people following their exposure to asbestos in Eternit’s factories in Italy. In the first instance, he was sentenced to 12 years.
Seized by the defence, the Supreme Court of Cassation found that the judgment of the second instance had been served in Italian, a language that the entrepreneur is not fluent in and not in German. According to Italian procedural law, this error violates the right to defence and leads to the nullity of the judgment.
“We are bitter. The delays are getting longer and there is a great risk that many other cases will be prescribed,” the “Sicurezza e Lavoro” association, a civil party in the Eternit trial, said on Wednesday.
Translated using AI/
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