A couple who refused to the shake hands with those interviewing them during their citizenship application, has withdrawn their appeal challenging its rejection, according to the newspaper Le Matin. Pierre-Antoine Hildbrand, a local politician who interviewed the couple last spring told Keystone-ATS that the couple’s application was rejected by a majority of the municipality of […]
Swiss roofs could produce over 80% of the nation’s electricity
Information combining maps from Swisstopo with weather data from Swiss Meteo shows that if all the roofs of Switzerland’s buildings were fully equipped with solar panels they’d produce 50 tWh of electricity a year, around 83% of the 60 tWh of electricity consumed annually, according to the Swiss Federal Office of Energy. Combined with Switzerland’s […]
Religion declines further in Switzerland
Statistics for 2017 show that 26% of Switzerland’s residents have no religion. As recently as 1960 the same figure was less than 1%. In 2016, the same figure was 25%. The percentage with no faith shows significant regional variations. While only 20% of Italian speakers have no religion, 25% in German-speaking Switzerland and 31% in […]
Nearly half of Swiss admit to stealing
Either at work, at a restaurant, on public transport or in a shop, nearly half of Swiss admit to stealing, according to a survey by moneyland.ch 49% of the 1,500 questioned in the survey admitted to pocketing something without paying. Young people admitted to being the most light fingered. Around a fifth of those aged […]
CERN in contact with Elon Musk about new super-sized collider
Elon Musk has been in communication with the director of CERN about the construction of a tunnel for the proposed super collider under discussion at the Geneva-based organisation. Elon Musk’s Boring Company has been busy boring a hole under Los Angeles, making him a logical person to contact if you have plans to dig a […]
Swiss politicians might soon have to declare dual nationality
Swiss parliamentarians could soon be required to show any other nationalities they hold on the official parliamentary website. The idea was supported by 15 members of a 22-member parliamentary commission looking at it, according to RTS. The initiative was launched by Swiss People’s Party (UDC/SVP) member Marco Chiesa and has stated aim of improving transparency. […]
Vote against laws restricting religious clothing in public office divides Geneva
In Switzerland, religion is a cantonal matter. Cantons decide on the relationship between religion and politics. This has created a patchwork of different systems across Switzerland. In April 2018, the government of Geneva introduced new rules designed to further protect religious freedom and preserve religious neutrality in its public institutions, known as laïcité or secularity laws. Laïcité […]
Half of Swiss happy with their finances
A recent survey suggests that half of Swiss residents are satisfied with their financial situation while 6% said they have trouble making ends meet. In addition, 28% expect their finances to improve in 2019, although fewer women (25%) than men (33%) expect this. 18% expect their finances to worsen and 54% expect no change. Views […]
Switzerland scores well on youth job market conditions but suffers from skills mismatch
A recent report places Switzerland second in a ranking of 33 european countries on conditions in the youth labour market in 2016 – youth are those between 15 and 24. Switzerland’s overall score of 5.67 out of 7.00 is close to Denmark’s 5.72. Switzerland’s highest scores are for employment rate (6.01) and working conditions (5.77), […]
Swiss organic farm output doubles
Between 1999 and 2017 the amount of organic food produced on Swiss farms more than doubled. In 1999, 5.3% of Switzerland’s farm output was organic. By 2017 this figure had risen to 11.7%. In 1999, Swiss farms produced CHF 562 million worth of organic food. In 2017, they produced CHF 1.2 billion. Consumers are spending […]
