Does speculation distort food prices and create hunger? Food shortages are caused by many things, among them, bad weather, wars and supply problems. There is also evidence that speculation amplifies natural price movements, sometimes to a point that limits access to food in poor countries. In a working paper, Stephen Spratt, from the Institute of Development […]
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 […]
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 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 […]
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 […]
New Swiss vote on EU immigration gets official go ahead
In December last year a group called RASA – an acronym for “out of the dead end” in German (Raus aus der Sackgasse), started collecting signatures for a popular vote that would serve as a Plan B should EU negotiations fail with Brussels over the 9 February 2014 vote to limit immigration from EU countries. […]
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 […]
Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf quits Swiss ‘cabinet’
Tribune de Genève. Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf announced today that she will not seek reelection as a Federal Councillor in December, stepping down from her position as one of the 7-member executive team at the end of this year. Elected to the Federal Council in 2007, after a coup pushed fellow UDC (SVP) party member Christoph Blocher […]
