Switzerland sets aside more funds to protect religious minorities
Select your language
Generated with artificial intelligence.
Listening:
Switzerland sets aside more funds to protect religious minorities
Jewish and Muslim minorities as well as LGBTQ+ communities will temporarily receive increased state protection in Switzerland.
+Get the most important news from Switzerland in your inbox
The government has increased funding by CHF1 million to CHF6 million per year.
The increase in financial support for the protection of minorities with special needs relates to the years 2026 and 2027, according to a statement issued by the federal government on Wednesday. This is an “important contribution to the protection of vulnerable minorities from terrorist or violent extremist attacks in Switzerland”.
+ Is Switzerland taking racism seriously enough?
Due to the tense security situation, the applications submitted for financial participation in protection measures have recently significantly exceeded the available funds, the Federal Council wrote. The temporary budget increase is intended to take into account an increased need for protection.
According to the Federal Intelligence Service (FIS), Jewish and Muslim organisations as well as the LGBTQ+ community currently have “a particular need for protection”. Due to the current threat situation, an increase in applications is to be expected from all three communities.
The federal government can provide financial support for structural, technical or organisational measures by private or public organisations. These grants are intended to be used to implement security measures. According to the Federal Council’s plans, the amount will fall back to the current CHF5 million in 2028.
More
Sharp rise in Swiss racism incidents in 2024
Translated from French by DeepL/mga
How we work
We select the most relevant news for an international audience and use automatic translation tools such as DeepL to translate them into English. A journalist then reviews the translation for clarity and accuracy before publication. Providing you with automatically translated news gives us the time to write more in-depth articles. The news stories we select have been written and carefully fact-checked by an external editorial team from news agencies such as Bloomberg or Keystone.
Did you find this explanation helpful? Please fill out the short survey below to help us understand your needs.
External Content
In compliance with the JTI standards
More: SWI swissinfo.ch certified by the Journalism Trust Initiative
You can find an overview of ongoing debates with our journalists here . Please join us!
If you want to start a conversation about a topic raised in this article or want to report factual errors, email us at english@swissinfo.ch.