Following the terrorist attack in Vienna this week, Swiss and Austrian authorities have been in contact following the arrest of two Swiss in Winterthur, a hotbed of radicalisation in Switzerland, according to RTS. Intelligence services, police and judicial authorities from both nations have been working together to look at the case. The An’ Nur mosque […]
Swiss government rejects call to abolish the crime of blasphemy
Last week, Switzerland’s parliament rejected by 115 votes to 48 a proposal to abolish the crime of blasphemy in Switzerland. Beat Flach proposed the motion, arguing that defining blasphemy as a crime places limits on free speech. We should not punish people for criticising religion, believes Flach. Instead he thinks Switzerland should send a strong […]
Covid sceptics taking up more and more Swiss police time
Some Covid sceptics and those energetically opposed to measures to stop the spread of the SARS-CoV-2 virus are consuming an increasing amount of police time, in particular the time of staff at Switzerland’s Federal Office of Police (Fedpol), reported RTS. The rising propensity for violence associated with Covid sceptics is taking up a lot of […]
New Swiss initiative to further restrict construction
Land use is strictly governed in Switzerland. However, a new initiative, which aims to increase construction restrictions further, recently gathered enough signatures to qualify for a a popular vote. The initiative, dubbed the countryside initiative, was officially registered after gathering 104,487 valid signatures, more than the 100,000 that must be collected within 100 days to […]
Swiss clocks go back one hour on Sunday
2020 will be extended by one hour this weekend. Early on Sunday 25 October 2020 Swiss clocks go back one hour. Officially, time shifts at 3am. This means you can spend an extra hour in bed and it will be lighter when you get up. On the down side, it will get darker one hour […]
38% of Swiss population has a migrant background
At the end of 2019, nearly 38% of permanent residents in Switzerland over the age of 15 had a migrant background, according to recently published data. Those with a migrant background fell into one of two categories: first or second generation migrants. First generation migrants, which made up 31% of the population, were either foreign […]
Swiss economy to slide less than feared, according to new forecast
An updated forecast published this week by the Switzerland’s federal government is less negative than forecasters feared in the middle of the year. The new forecast expects Swiss GDP adjusted for sporting events to fall by 3.8% in 2020 and unemployment to average 3.2% across the year. The forecast in June 2020, predicted a 6.2% […]
Initiative against Swiss Covid app fails
In July 2020, a group started gathering signatures to launch a public vote to ban Switzerland’s Covid-19 contact tracing app. To launch a referendum in Switzerland organisers must collect 50,000 signatures from eligible voters within 100 days. Organisers of the “Stop Swiss Covid” initiative had until 8 October 2020 to collect 50,000 signatures. According to […]
Home vacancy rates continue to rise in Switzerland
Finding a place to rent or buy has never been easy in Switzerland, a real estate market notorious for tight supply of property. Recently published data from Switzerland’s Federal Statistical Office show are rise in vacancy rates from 1.66% to 1.72% in 2020. On 1 June 2019, there were 75,383 vacant properties either for rent […]
Swiss National Bank intervenes heavily to weaken Swiss franc
Official data recently released by the Swiss National Bank (SNB) show it sold 51.5 billion Swiss francs while acquiring US dollar and euro-denominated assets in a bid to weaken the franc over the first quarter of 2020. The data followed comments by SNB President Thomas Jordan signalling that even larger interventions may be on the […]
