It is voting season again in Switzerland. On the Sunday 28 February 2016 Swiss citizens get to vote on four proposals. The first is to decide whether to build a second Gotthard road tunnel or not. The current Gotthard road tunnel runs nearly 17km under around one kilometre of Alpine rock from Göschenen in the German-speaking […]
The diet and beliefs that disqualified one man from Swiss military service
20 Minutes. For some, exclusion from compulsory military service would be great news. For one 19-year-old from Valais in Switzerland it came as a huge disappointment. He sees Military service as something that brings valuable experience. Unfortunately for him he was declared unfit for service. Why? Because he is a vegan and won’t eat meat […]
Swiss People’s Party (UDC) leaders quit one after the other
Le Matin. Yesterday, Toni Brunner, president of the Swiss People’s Party (UDC/SVP), announced he would quit as the party’s president on 23 April 2016. Then today the Swiss newspaper SonntagsBlick, reported that Christoph Blocher also plans to resign from his post as one of the party’s several vice presidents at the same time as its president. Brunner, who described Blocher […]
Swiss are buying more and more guns
24 Heures. Like many in the United States who defend loose gun laws, more and more Swiss are deciding guns will make them safer. Martin Boess, Director of the Swiss centre for crime prevention, disagrees. Compared to 2014, requests for permits to buy guns went up an average of 20% across 12 of Switzerland’s 26 cantons in […]
School teacher bans traditional Swiss shirts in class
Tribune de Genève. The traditional Swiss shirt, blue with small edelweiss flower motifs, has again created conflict at a Swiss school in the canton of Zurich. Last week ten young people arrived at Gossau secondary school wearing the shirts. According to the newspaper Sonntags Zeitung, their teacher demanded they change their clothing. Why? She considered their […]
Swiss people’s party (UDC) gains extra seat in Swiss cabinet
The suspense is over. After the Swiss people’s party’s (UDC/SVP) success at the recent Federal election many expected the party to get an extra seat in the Swiss Federal council, the seven member body that makes up the Swiss executive. On 9 December 2015 it was announced that the new UDC member to join the […]
Neuchatel bans nativity scene from town’s Christmas tree
Le Matin. Carved statues of Mary, Joseph and Jesus have been removed from under Neuchâtel’s town Christmas tree because the town doesn’t want to be associated with religious symbols. “The town’s Christmas tree shouldn’t be associated with religious symbols. It’s everyone’s tree, all citizens, non-religious and religious” said commune councillor Olivier Arni to archinfo.ch. The […]
Swiss canton of Ticino passes law that bans burka
Le Matin. According to the Swiss newspaper Le Matin, from now on it is forbidden to cover your face in a public space in the Italian-speaking Swiss canton of Ticino. Following a successful popular vote to ban face covering in public in the canton in September 2013, the Canton’s government has now approved changes to […]
Could Switzerland language divisions ever divide it?
Christophe Büchi discusses the country’s language divisions and why we should worry about Italian-speaking Ticino. Long time correspondent in French-speaking Switzerland for the Neue Zürcher Zeitung, the journalist and writer is fascinated by the complex relationship between Switzerland’s French and German speakers. He spoke with Thibaut Kaeser of Echo magazine about Switzerland’s language divisions and […]
Mayor of Nyon throws his hat into the ring for 2016 elections
Daniel Rossellat, the current mayor of Nyon, throws his hat into the ring again, announcing this morning that he intends to run for mayor of Nyon in 2016. Known also as the organiser of the Paleo music festival, he has been the town’s mayor since 2009. Born in 1953 in the town of Yverdon-les-Bains he […]
