This week, Switzerland’s lower house has narrowly backed a temporary VAT rise to finance the country’s new 13th month of state pension, reported SRF. Wage contributions are off the table and the National Council, Switzerland’s parliament, agreed only to lift VAT by 0.7 percentage points until the end of 2030. That vote puts an end […]
Switzerland to make it easier to adopt stepchildren
Switzerland’s government wants to make it simpler for step-parents to adopt. Under a draft law approved by the Federal Council, couples who have raised a child together since birth would no longer need to undergo a one-year foster-care period before adoption. The reform, which amends the Civil Code, stems from the introduction of “marriage for […]
Swiss upper house says no to daycare initiative
Switzerland’s Council of States has rejected a popular initiative on subsidised childcare but endorsed a watered-down alternative, reported SRF. The initiative, backed by the Social Democrats, Greens, Centre Party, Green Liberals and trade unions, would entitle every child from the age of three months until the end of primary school to supplementary childcare. Parents’ contributions […]
Zurich to stop teaching French in primary schools
Zurich is the latest German-speaking Swiss canton to question Switzerland’s policy of teaching French from the first years of school. This week, its cantonal council voted to scrap early French lessons, joining Appenzell Ausserrhoden, which made a similar decision earlier this year. Proposals to delay French instruction until high school are under discussion in other […]
Swiss government rejects call to double price of the motorway vignette
This week, Switzerland’s government rejected a call to double the price of the motorway vignette, reported RTS. The annual permit, which has cost CHF 40 since 1995, will not rise to CHF 80, as proposed by Martin Candinas, a centrist MP from Graubünden. He had argued that the increase should be coupled with a matching […]
Switzerland’s higher state pensions to be financed with VAT increase
In March 2024 Swiss voters approved, by 58%, a plan to grant pensioners a 13th monthly payment. That set off a quarrel over how to fund it. This week the National Council’s social-security committee backed a scheme to finance the extra benefit solely through a 0.7 percentage point rise in value-added tax, reported SRF. The […]
If we give in, Trump will demand more, says Swiss political scientist
Donald Trump’s tariffs threaten to dent Swiss exports. They have also sparked what Joseph de Weck, a Swiss historian and political scientist, calls an identity crisis in a country long used to navigating between great powers. Mr Trump treats trade deficits as the source of almost every American ill—debt, deindustrialisation, even the opioid crisis. Tariffs […]
Bern rejects extra emergency-room charge
This week, Bern decided patients who turn up at accident-and-emergency units with trivial complaints should not face extra charges, reported RTS. On Wednesday it rejected a parliamentary proposal to let cantons impose a levy on such visits, arguing it would add bureaucracy without easing pressure on hospitals. The idea came from Thomas Weibel, a former […]
Bern to have more control during the next pandemic
Much time has passed since the Covid-19 pandemic, however, the Swiss government has not forgotten the challenges the country faced trying to coordinate the efforts of cantonal and federal authorities to manage the situation. This week, Bern set out draft laws governing how decisions will be made during future pandemics, reported RTS. Switzerland must be […]
The F-35 fiasco – price hikes, tariffs, and US intransigence
Washington has refused to guarantee a fixed price for Switzerland’s 36 F-35 fighter jets, reported RTS. The total bill will therefore exceed the CHF 6 billion approved by voters. After weeks of talks with senior White House officials—including a call between America’s defence secretary, Pete Hegseth, and Switzerland’s defence minister, Martin Pfister—the United States has […]
