The week in Switzerland
Dear Swiss Abroad,
Did you vote in Sunday’s initiative on capping the Swiss population at ten million? The Swiss Abroad rejected it by a considerably greater margin than voters in Switzerland. A political scientist explains why.
On Sunday Swiss voters rejected – by 55% to 45% – an initiative to limit the Swiss population. Rejection was even higher among the Swiss Abroad, at more than 70%.
The “No to ten million” initiative from the right-wing Swiss People’s Party had sought to cap the country’s population at ten million by 2050 (it’s currently 9.1 million) by drastically restricting immigration.
The result came as no surprise to political scientist Martina Mousson, who said it was consistent with the typical voting pattern of Swiss citizens abroad, who “generally vote more to the left”. “This is even more pronounced when it comes to issues relating to Europe and immigration, as this section of the population is heavily dependent on good relations with the European Union and also benefits from the free movement of people,” she said.
The Organisation of the Swiss Abroad had also spoken out against the proposal, fearing it would undermine the status of the 480,000 Swiss nationals living in the EU.
The result was widely interpreted abroad as a choice for stability and openness. Many media outlets around the world highlighted the risks that a population cap would have posed to Switzerland’s relations with the European Union.
The G7 Summit in the French town of Évian, just across Lake Geneva, kept the Swiss authorities busy this week.
Ahead of the summit, which ran from Monday to Wednesday, canton Geneva had closed most of its border crossing with France, disrupting daily life for residents and affecting traffic. On Sunday an anti-G7 demo in Geneva ended with the police arresting three people. The police said damage was mainly broken windows, destroyed bus shelters and a car being set on fire. There were also reports of excessive violence committed by the police.
On Monday US President Donald Trump landed at Geneva Airport, where he was met by Swiss President Guy Parmelin and the US ambassador to Switzerland, Callista Gingrich. Trump was on the tarmac for just a few moments before boarding a US Navy helicopter for France.
The situation in Iran was a focus of talks in Évian, with reports that a memorandum of understanding between the US and Iran would be signed at the Bürgenstock resort overlooking Lake Lucerne on Friday. However, on Wednesday evening Trump and Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian signed an initial peace deal at the Palace of Versailles, outside Paris.
“Once again, Switzerland is finding out just how unpredictable Donald Trump is,” wrote the Tages-Anzeiger on Thursday. “Switzerland spent 14 days preparing for the big day – all for nothing?”
On Friday morning the foreign ministry confirmed that the Bürgenstock talks between the US and Iran had been cancelled. The announcement came after a White House spokesperson said overnight that US Vice President JD Vance had pulled out.
Switzerland is no longer the most competitive country in the world. Having taken first place last year, it has slipped to third place behind Singapore and Hong Kong, according to the latest World Competitiveness Ranking by the Lausanne-based business school IMD.
This loss of the top position is primarily attributed to a “sharp decline” in economic performance. As one of the four most important competitiveness factors, this has slipped by 24 places to 37th, IMD said on Thursday.
“The decisive factor is primarily the speed at which other economically strong countries such as Singapore and Hong Kong respond to wars, trade tariffs, and other geopolitical challenges,” explained Swiss public broadcaster SRF, quoting IMD. “Switzerland cannot quite keep up when it comes to the pace of these adjustments. It takes longer here to react to such challenges. From the perspective of international companies, Switzerland is also an expensive place to do business owing to high living costs and wages, as well as factors such as office rents and electricity costs.”
Arturo Bris, head of the study and economist at IMD, even saw a risk that Switzerland could continue to slip when it came to competitiveness. For a long time, the country benefited from its status as “half inside Europe, half outside”, he told SRF. However, this is working less and less well, he said, also warning that “Switzerland hardly plays a role anymore in the international technological race”.
The number of Swiss with the financial means to spend lavishly on their holidays is falling. The proportion who spend more than CHF6,000 ($7,500) on holidays has fallen from 19% to 11.9% over the past year, according to a survey.
However, travel budgets in the mid-price segment have increased, financial services provider Swiss Bankers said on Tuesday. At 41.9%, the largest proportion of the roughly 1,000 respondents spend CHF2,000-CHF4,000 on travel each year, up from 36.1% last year. The proportion of people with a travel budget of CHF4,001-CHF6,000 has also risen to 20.8%, up from 17.3%. A third of respondents had taken three or more trips in the past 12 months.
Conflicts around the world are having an impact on the travel behaviour of the Swiss. More than half are avoiding the Middle East. Around a quarter don’t want to travel to Russia or Ukraine. “It’s striking that a quarter of those surveyed do not currently consider the United States to be a potential travel destination either,” wrote Swiss public broadcaster SRF.
Instead, southern European countries such as Italy, Spain or Greece are now more likely to be considered than they were two to three years ago.
Edited by Samuel Jaberg/sb
The week in brief
Tuesday is exactly ten years since Brexit, when 52% of British voters pulled their country out of the European Union. In this article, we look at why “the Swiss model” keeps being mentioned.
At 9pm (Swiss time) on Wednesday, Switzerland play Canada in their last group match at the men’s football World Cup. Will they have done enough to get to the knockout stage?
Two very different musical festivals begin on Friday: the Swiss Yodelling Festival in Basel and the 31st International Trucker & Country Festival in Interlaken. Both run until Sunday.
Pride Romande, a LGBT event for French-speaking Switzerland, returns to Lausanne on Friday, with the main parade being held at 2pm on Saturday.
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