Switzerland Today
Hello, Swiss of the world,
After the collective trauma of the fatal fire in Crans-Montana, Switzerland woke up to another shock this morning. Six people had been killed and five injured in a fire on a PostBus in Kerzers in canton Fribourg. A man who set himself on fire is believed to be the cause of the tragedy.
While messages of condolence are pouring in from abroad, incomprehension and astonishment prevail in this small Fribourg village.
A fire on a PostBus killed six people and injured five on Tuesday evening in Kerzers, a small village in canton Fribourg. The man behind the tragedy is believed to have set himself on fire.
The alleged perpetrator is a Swiss national living in canton Bern. Described as “marginal and disturbed”, the man in his sixties reportedly doused himself with petrol before setting himself on fire. He is believed to have died. “There is absolutely nothing to suggest that this was an act of terrorism,” Raphaël Bourquin, the cantonal public prosecutor, said at a press conference this afternoon.
The six people who died have not yet been formally identified. The nationalities of the victims are not yet known, but they are believed to have been born between 1961 and 2009, said cantonal police commander Philippe Allain. Investigations are continuing to determine the exact circumstances of the tragedy.
In a message published on X, Guy Parmelin, who holds the rotating Swiss presidency this year, said he was “shocked and saddened that people have once again lost their lives in a serious fire in Switzerland”. Among the many reactions of solidarity, Italy expressed its condolences through its foreign minister, Antonio Tajani. “Italy is close to Switzerland,” he wrote on X, assuring the Swiss people of “the affection and solidarity of all Italians”.
The Senate wants to revive nuclear power in Switzerland. The decision comes on the 15th anniversary of the Fukushima disaster, which prompted Switzerland to turn its back on nuclear power.
Today the Senate accepted by 26 votes to 12 the counter-proposal to the “Stop the blackout” initiative drawn up by Environment Minister Albert Rösti. This would lift the ban on the construction of nuclear power plants. The House of Representatives still has to vote on the proposal, and ultimately the Swiss people are likely to have the final say.
If this decision becomes reality, it would represent a 180-degree shift in Switzerland’s energy policy. On May 21, 2017, voters decided to phase out nuclear power in line with the strategy of the government.
The House of Representatives, for its part, has decided on a historic rehabilitation. It approved a parliamentary initiative to abolish the sanctions imposed during the Second World War on the 466 Swiss who fought in the French Resistance. The matter now goes to the Senate.
Relations between Switzerland and Russia feature prominently in the Swiss media today. Le Temps observes a change in tone in Moscow towards Bern, which has become approachable again. At the same time, a wide-ranging journalistic investigation sheds light on a Russian disinformation network active in Switzerland.
According to Le Temps, Switzerland’s chairmanship of the OSCE is helping to reposition Swiss diplomacy. Although Switzerland is still officially described as a “hostile” country by the Kremlin, its good offices are once again being called upon. After taking part in talks on Ukraine in Geneva, the Russians are now inviting Bern to celebrate the 80th anniversary of diplomatic relations with the USSR.
For the French-language daily, this normalisation offers Switzerland the opportunity to regain a privileged role as a diplomatic meeting place. However, it warns: “The risk is that [Russian President Vladimir] Putin will use these services to maintain the illusion of a search for peace that he does not want.”
At the same time, Tamedia’s headlines detail how a network spreading false information leads back to Russian secret services. Switzerland is increasingly paying the price: Moscow rarely invents entirely new lies about Switzerland but instead picks up on existing polemics and debates and adds fuel to the fire.
Following the glitch that affected electronic voting in canton Basel City, all cantons must check the procedures for protecting the keys used to decrypt electronic ballot boxes, the Federal Chancellery announced today.
“Lessons must be learnt from the incident in canton Basel City,” the Federal Chancellery wrote today. It is therefore asking the cantons testing electronic voting systems – Basel City, St Gallen, Thurgau and Graubünden – to carry out checks.
However, the Federal Chancellery stresses that there are currently no concrete elements calling into question the continuation of e-voting trials.
The incident was due to an external factor and not the e-voting system itself, according to information sent to Bern by the Basel authorities. During the vote on March 8, canton Basel City was unable to decrypt its electronic ballot box and 2,048 votes submitted via this channel could not be counted. These votes came almost exclusively from Swiss citizens living abroad.
Translated using AI/amva/ts
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