A third of Swiss find aid for Crans-Montana victims too generous

The younger the respondents, the more they consider the sum of CHF50,000 to be too generous. Keystone / Alessandro Della Valle

The Swiss public is divided over the CHF50,000 ($63,100) in federal support to be paid to each victim of the Crans-Montana fire, a survey commissioned by 20Minuten and Tamedia shows. A third of those polled say it is too generous.

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For 31% of those polled, “solidarity aid of CHF50,000 per person, in addition to other compensation paid by insurance companies and the canton of Valais” was considered too high. Of those surveyed, 37% consider it adequate, 11% too low and 21% don’t know.

For a third of men (33%), the CHF50,000 is too generous. This opinion is shared by 29% of women. The aid is also considered too high by 43% of right-wing Swiss People’s Party voters and 31% of supporters of the centre-right Radical-Liberals. This figure falls to 27% among Centre Party supporters and 21% among left-wing voters (Social Democrats and Greens).

+ Swiss government to provide solidarity payment for Crans-Montana fire victims

The younger the respondents, the more they consider the sum of CHF50,000 to be too generous. This was the case for 37% of 19-34 year-olds, 35% of 37-49 year-olds, 28% of 50-64 year-olds and 24% of those aged 65 and over. The vast majority of the victims were teenagers and young adults.

Citizens more reserved

Furthermore, a third (33%) of people living in the countryside or on the limits of urban areas felt that the Confederation’s approach was too generous, compared with a quarter of city dwellers (25%). Finally, people with no formal education are more likely than those with a university degree (37% versus 25%) to disapprove of the federal government’s approach.

During the spring session, the Swiss parliament approved a solidarity contribution of CHF50,000 for the victims of the fire and their families. The contribution could be paid out as early as this spring. The New Year’s fire in a bar in Crans-Montana left 41 people dead and 115 injured.

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The survey, conducted by the LeeWas institute, was carried out between March 5-8 with 17,788 people: 12,594 residents of German-speaking Switzerland, 4,686 in French-speaking Switzerland and 508 in Ticino. The margin of error for this opinion poll is plus or minus 2.2%.

Translated from French with DeepL/gw

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