Switzerland Today
Dear Swiss Abroad,
Swiss President Guy Parmelin will be in North America in the coming days until July 9. Watching the Swiss national team’s World Cup round-of-32 knock-out match against Algeria on July 3 will be a brief interlude – perhaps a moment to switch off from his real mission: preventing new tariff hikes from Washington.
Enjoy the read!
Swiss President Guy Parmelin will travel to the United States, Canada and Mexico through to July 9. Though long planned around the 2026 World Cup, the trip will focus less on football than on trade, especially tariffs.
Current US tariffs on imported Swiss goods, reduced to 10% after a Supreme Court ruling, are set to expire on July 24. What follows remains unclear. Parmelin aims to keep them below the 15% cap agreed last November in a declaration of intent and ideally secure this threshold in a legally binding agreement.
In Washington, Parmelin will hold talks with US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer. Ultimately, however, decisions rest with President Donald Trump, whose unpredictability has already caught Switzerland off guard on several occasions, most notably with the surprise announcement of 39% tariffs last year.
For now, the priority is damage control. Parmelin is expected to stress Switzerland’s commitments, including planned investments of $200 billion (CHF161.7 billion) in the US over five years. A 15% tariff would be manageable, Blick notes: “The key thing is that there isn’t too great a discrepancy compared with [the tariffs imposed on] the European Union.”
New nuclear power plants in Switzerland would not be viable without state support and lower construction costs, according to a study by the federal technology institute ETH Zurich and the Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI) released today.
Four different models detailing the possible construction of a nuclear power station were assessed, but only one proves viable: one that includes government risk guarantees and support comparable to renewables.
The study concludes Switzerland can meet its climate goals without new nuclear plants. However, all models show the country would still be just as dependent on net electricity imports in winter in 2050 as it is today.
The issue will remain politically charged. During its last session, parliament backed the government’s counter-proposal to the “Stop the Blackout” initiative; the Greens have already said they will call for a referendum. Both plans – the initiative and counter-proposal – would lift the ban on new nuclear plants, a move that would reverse the 2017 vote for a phased phase-out.
Because this repeal was the initiative’s core demand, its backers may withdraw it if the counter-proposal is accepted. A nationwide vote is likely in February 2027.
US tech firm Palantir will not appeal against a Zurich Commercial Court ruling in its dispute with Republik magazine, a decision hailed as “a victory for investigative journalism” by Reporters Without Borders.
The case stemmed from two Republik articles examining Palantir’s failed attempts to enter the Swiss public-sector market as a supplier of surveillance technology to armed forces and intelligence services.
Palantir demanded multiple corrections, but the court sided with Republik on 22 of 23 disputed points. Although an appeal to the Federal Court was possible, the company has now dropped the case, marking a win for a small editorial team over a big tech firm.
“Excellent news,” Valentin Rubin of Reporters Without Borders told SRF. “If Palantir’s legal action had been successful, it would have signalled that it is possible to take action against the media to dictate the narrative. An unacceptable restriction on journalistic work.”
The 12-day-long heatwave has now eased north of the Alps; in the south of the country it is due to improve from Tuesday and subside by the weekend. Similar extreme weather events, however, are likely to intensify in future.
Switzerland can breathe more easily after record-breaking temperatures in many regions, including 39°C in Basel on Saturday. Temperatures won’t return to spring levels, but a drop of around ten degrees Celsius will make the days ahead more bearable.
Long term, the outlook is more troubling. Such heatwaves mark “the beginning of a process,” warns philosopher and environmental expert Dominique Bourg, who told RTS that “temperatures of 50°C in Geneva could be possible within 20 years”.
Underestimating the impact of global warming is a serious mistake, says Bourg, and if cities fail to adapt, the economic costs will also be enormous. The philosopher points the finger at the economic and political elites who have not done enough to address the issue, despite warnings from scientists dating back to the 1970s. It is too late to avoid major problems, but not too late to avoid even bigger ones, Bourg says. He hopes that this year’s heatwave, which has put much of the planet under strain, will act as a catalyst for a “radical” paradigm shift.
Translated from Italian, sub-edited by Simon Bradley
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