Mental health and mobility top Swiss youth parliament agenda

On Saturday, the participants of the youth parliament session met with Swiss president Viola Amherd. Keystone-SDA / Marcel Bieri

The participants of this year’s Swiss youth parliament session have put forward twelve demands. These concern, among other things, artificial intelligence, mental health and mobility.

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For four days, 200 young people between the ages of 14 and 21 came together in the Swiss Federal Parliament. Among other things, they discussed specific topics in working groups and then adopted twelve demands.

These concern, for example, artificial intelligence, mental health and mobility and were handed over to president of the House of Representatives Eric Nussbaumer in the last hour of the session on Sunday.

This year, the Prix Jeunesse, which is awarded for a special political commitment to young people, went to the organisation Stop Suicide. It is committed to preventing suicide among young people. According to the announcement, this is the second time in just a few years that the prize has been awarded to an organization in the field of mental health.

President promotes real conversations

On Saturday, the young people met with Swiss president Viola Amherd. In her speech, she stressed the importance of open discussions “at a time when our society is finding it increasingly difficult to have real conversations – face to face”. Such conversations require “patience, time and the will to really listen to one another”.

The courage and confidence to commit to a cause with complete conviction; these are values ​​that have endured the changing times. Democracy is ultimately only as strong as the willingness of its citizens from all generations to actively participate and seek compromise, she added.

The ability to compromise is not something that can be taken for granted; each generation has to learn and cultivate it for itself. She commended participants in the youth session for exercising these important qualities with passion.

Translated from German by DeepL/jdp

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