Switzerland Today
Dear Swiss Abroad,
Over the past few days I’ve spent my time either working on my laptop or relaxing in the shade by the River Aare. Despite the thousands of people there, the atmosphere at the riverside bathing spots I visited was surprisingly peaceful. It was a different story on Sunday in Bern’s Marzili bathing area.
While the heatwave is drawing many to Bern’s Marzili lido, a police operation is causing a stir. A trans woman was escorted out of the women’s area, detained at a police station for around two hours and later released.
For anyone not from Bern: if you go swimming in Bern, it’s not just in the River Aare. The city runs several freely accessible outdoor swimming pools, some with separate nudist areas. On Sunday, the police were called to the women’s section of the Marzili, the Paradiesli, where nude sunbathing is permitted, after two female bathers said they felt harassed by the mere presence of the trans woman. The women reported this to the private security service, which then called in the police.
The trans woman refused to leave the area despite being asked to do so by the pool staff. According to the police, their efforts were obstructed by those present; a female police officer sustained minor injuries from an unknown person. After the woman was released, a solidarity rally formed outside the Bern police headquarters.
The City of Bern acknowledged the following day that the swimming pool management had misjudged the situation. The trans woman had complied with the access rules and was entitled to use the women’s area.
The case has sparked a debate about trans women’s access to women-only areas. The city announced training for the swimming pool staff and clearer information on the access rules.
Pascal Jaussi, the entrepreneur once known as the “Swiss Elon Musk”, has been sentenced to five-and-a-half years’ imprisonment for economic offences.
The Fribourg Economic Crimes Court found the founder of the space company Swiss Space Systems (S3) guilty of, among other things, embezzlement, fraud, forgery and arson. The prosecution had sought an eight-year prison sentence.
Jaussi promised to revolutionise access to space. With his plan to send mini-satellites into space and offer zero-gravity flights, he raised large sums of money. Ticket sales for the zero-gravity flights alone brought in CHF1.64 million ($2 million) – but no one ever took off.
Following the company’s bankruptcy in 2017, a deficit running into millions remained. The court also concluded that Jaussi had staged an arson attack in 2016 – in which he was seriously injured – in order to delay his company’s insolvency.
Despite this guilty verdict, the court did not increase the sentence. The presiding judge explained that, with his severe burns, Jaussi had “paid dearly enough with his own body”.
During his visit to Washington, Swiss Finance Minister Guy Parmelin failed to achieve a breakthrough in the tariff dispute with the US. Switzerland is strongly advocating in the US for the extension of the agreement reached last year.
Following the meeting with US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer, Parmelin reiterated that Switzerland is adhering to the memorandum of understanding of November 2025 and expects the same from the US. “A deal is a deal,” he said.
Parmelin, who also holds the rotating Swiss presidency this year, did not receive a binding commitment from Washington. The US is continuing to consider additional tariffs as part of ongoing trade investigations. “The only thing that is certain in today’s world is that there are no longer any certainties,” said Parmelin, referring to the geopolitical situation.
Talks are set to continue. Switzerland’s priority is to ensure that the current tariff ceilings and existing trade conditions remain in place even after July 24.
The vote on the “No to ten million” immigration initiative on July 14 revealed a marked difference in mobilisation between the language regions. In German-speaking Switzerland, the campaign was particularly intense.
According to figures from Mediafocus, the right-wing Swiss People’s Party invested just under CHF3 million ($3.7 million) in advertising for the initiative – the majority of which was spent in German-speaking Switzerland. The opposition also concentrated its activities more heavily on the region where it expected the decision to be made.
Voter turnout in German-speaking Switzerland was around eight percentage points higher than in French-speaking Switzerland. While cantons such as Zurich and Lucerne saw strong mobilisation, turnout in Geneva and Neuchâtel was significantly lower.
Political scientists attribute the differences, among other things, to the intensity of the campaigns and differing political cultures. In French-speaking Switzerland, turnout in federal referendums is traditionally lower – usually by three to five percentage points.
Translated from German, sub-edited by ts
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