Swiss Abroad

Swiss politicians: just don’t call me a professional

This content was published on Oct 24, 2014 Karin Keller-Sutter is leaning against a wall in the Parliament building, talking to a reporter. No one could have a greater claim to the title “professional politician” than the 50-year-old from St Gallen. Whether in her city council or cantonal parliament, as president of her local political party, as a candidate for one of the…

Swiss Politics

New generation

This content was published on Oct 24, 2014 Evi Allemann is among the new generation of politicians who are entering politics at a young age.

Suffering a backlash from Israeli policies

This content was published on Oct 18, 2014 According to Mic, a New York based youth news service, the number of anti-Semitic attacks around the world spikes during flash points between Israelis and Palestinians. This summer’s Gaza operation led to violent anti-Jewish demonstrations in France and attacks on synagogues. Security had to be stepped up at Swiss synagogues ahead of Jewish New Year…

Swiss Politics

A bridge between Switzerland and Mongolia

This content was published on Oct 18, 2014 Fifty years on from Switzerland's first diplomatic relations with Mongolia, a photo exhibition showcases what links the two countries – and what separates them.

Swiss Politics

Tighter grip needed on Switzerland’s gold?

This content was published on Oct 16, 2014 “Save Switzerland’s gold”: it sounds like the plot of a thriller, but it is actually a proposal going before voters in a nationwide ballot on November 30. So, who do the Swiss need to save their gold from? Not from organised crime or terrorism, according to proponents of the initiative, but from the leadership of…

Swiss Politics

Gaddafi-linked engineer extradited to Canada

This content was published on Oct 16, 2014 Switzerland has extradited a businessman, who bribed the Gaddafi regime, to Canada to face separate corruption charges linked to a Quebec hospital project.

Swiss Politics

Swiss mountain farmers are a vanishing breed

This content was published on Oct 16, 2014 Hundreds of farms disappear each year in Switzerland. Some farms, especially mountain farms, are too small to survive. (RTS, swissinfo.ch) They often rely on the support of charities, like Caritas, which sends nearly a thousand volunteers each year to help on farms for a few days or weeks at a time. In some cases, farmers are forced to take up a second job just to make ends meet. They are constantly battling to survive and a bad year is all it takes for these farms to close down. Even though Swiss farmers have access to government subsidies, these are often based on coming up with a new business model. This in turn often requires significant investment in modernisation that small farmers cannot afford, putting these subsidies out of their reach. Those that manage to raise the capital to modernise are able to cope with the new realities thanks to the subsidies. These farmers see the subsidies as a salary for the important landscape services they provide and the high quality produce that comes out of their farms. However, even these lucky farmers cannot remain complacent. They have to become market savvy in order to sell their produce and can no longer remain isolated from the wider world. The ones that succeed are more like entrepreneurs than the typical mountain farmers of yesteryears.

Swiss Politics

Swiss fight to block public gold vote

This content was published on Oct 15, 2014 Switzerland's central bank is fighting to block a populist motion that would force it to almost treble the proportion of gold reserves.

Swiss Politics

Swiss pledge to review business taxation

This content was published on Oct 14, 2014 The declaration, signed in Luxembourg on Tuesday, includes the Swiss government’s plans to push ahead with abolishing certain preferential tax regimes for foreign holding companies based on international standards by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. In return, EU member states confirmed they would lift any sanctions taken against these regimes, according to a…

Swiss Politics

Election process ‘too complex’, say young people

This content was published on Oct 14, 2014 People between the ages of 15 and 21 complained that political language is too complicated, candidates are not well known and the process is generally too difficult to understand, according to a survey commissioned by the federation for Swiss youth parliaments and conducted by the leading GfS Bern research and polling institute. More than half…

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