Requiring foreign residents to undertake military service is one option explored in a government sponsored report published last week. The current system requires all able young male Swiss citizens to do military service. In 1985 there were around 45,000 eligible men. By 2014 this number had dropped to about 37,000. Estimates for 2035 are between 36,000 […]
Photos of the inside of a new Swiss prison
After investing CHF 21.8 million on transformation and renovation work, a prison in La Chaux-de-Fonds in the Swiss canton of Neuchatel, now has 102 new prison cells. On 18 March 2008, the canton’s leaders voted unanimously to invest in the project to transform existing buildings, some as old as 130 years, into a new prison facility. […]
No laughing matter – French satirist makes fun of Switzerland’s president
The French satire news show Le Petit Journal recently made fun of a speech made by Swiss president Johann Schneider-Ammann. The speech, made to commemorate Switzerland’s day of the sick on 1 March 2016, recommends laughter to those suffering from illness. The message however, is delivered with no trace of humour. This absence of humour now has […]
Swiss vote to automatically expel foreign criminals. Sensible or perverse?
In 2010, 52.9% of Swiss voters agreed that foreigners convicted of certain crimes should be deported. Following the vote, in March 2015, Switzerland’s parliament approved laws enacting the measure. The Swiss People’s Party (UDC/SVP), the vote’s organiser, cried foul, claimed the new laws watered down the original text, and proposed a more rigid formulation that voters […]
Swiss vote: the pros and cons of a new Alpine road tunnel
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 […]
