Switzerland Today

Hello from Bern, where 30-degree temperatures mean many are just waiting to finish work and head for a dip. But how much body should be revealed? And should we even care?

Keystone / Steffen Schmidt

In the news: Swiss companies pulling out of Russia, jetting into the US.

• Zurich Insurance Group and the Julius Bär bank have announced plans to abandon their Moscow offices amid the ongoing war in Ukraine. Zurich said on Friday it would sell its Russian subsidiary in a local management buyout, while Julius Bär said on Thursday it was “winding-down”. The pair are the latest Swiss companies to scale back Russian operations since the February invasion of Ukraine.
• Nestlé will be the first foreign company to send baby formula to the US as part of Washington’s “Operation Fly Formula”, announced by the White House to tackle a domestic shortage. Some 22 tonnes will be flown from Zurich to Illinois in a plane chartered by the US Department of Defence. The shipment corresponds to 1.5 million 8-ounce bottles. Nestlé did not comment on how much the deal was worth.
• Swiss doctors have adopted an updated set of guidelines around end-of-life treatment, which notably touch on assisted suicide. Though the guidelines are not legally binding, they include tighter checks on patients wishing to die, and will form part of the medical profession’s ethical code. Assisted suicide groups said the guidelines are too stringent and will make it more difficult to assist those wishing to die.

Keystone/ennio Leanza

Topless: ok for a street protest, but what about for a swim?

With summer temperatures descending upon the land, there has been a surprising amount of toplessness in the Swiss press – mainly questions about when and where it’s ok. According to Le Temps, reportingExternal link from a court case in Lausanne, a street protest seems to be acceptable, at least if it’s non-violent and for a “sympathetic” (in the judge’s words) cause. Six demonstrators who went topless at the 2021 International Women’s Day were cleared of public disorder charges yesterday, Le Temps writes; they were found guilty of flouting pandemic social distancing rules, but were acquitted of being “attired in a manner contrary to decency and morals”.

But in outdoor pools, debates are ongoing (needless to say, this is all about women). Public pools in Geneva allow toplessness, Le Temps writes, but different municipalities apply different rules – some allow it while lounging but not swimming, others ban it altogether. In German-speaking parts, Social Democrat Tamara Funiciello caused a ruckus earlier this month when she called for toplessness to be rolled out in all pools. Complaining that the female bust has been sexualised for too long, Funiciello said women should be able to “walk around, swim, and sunbathe however they want” (20 MinutenExternal link). She dismissed the argument that this could lead to voyeuristic men taking advantage – women aren’t responsible for men’s reactions, she said.

Will she have any success in changing the status quo? A no-doubt unrepresentative, but well-answered online survey in the Tages-Anzeiger this week found 58% of respondents saying “whoever wants to take their top off, should be allowed”. Only 12% showed reluctance. As for how many women would actually take the plunge if the rules changed is difficult to say – social practices being harder to change than regulations. What is clear is that the debate will probably never end; as another piece in today’s Tages-Anzeiger describes, the 20th century saw a sea change in topless practices in Zurich: from the prudishness of the first decades to the high liberality of the 1980s, before the more ambivalent stance of 2022 – these days, most pools allow it, but only in designated zones.

Keystone / Martin Ruetschi

Bizarre bureaucracy: freedom group lauds pointless laws.

On interesting rules: the IG Freiheit (a group of liberally-minded politicians) announced last night their annual “rusty regulations” – yearly awards for the “most useless” legal prescriptions in Switzerland. According toExternal link the bureaucracy-hating group, the winner of this year’s gong was a canton Aargau decision to ban cows from wearing cow-bells after 10pm in the village of Berikon – because a resident complained of the noise at night. In second place was a new rule in Geneva giving women a 20% discount for entry to sports and cultural venues (to reflect women’s lower average salaries). And in third place was a decision by the federal traffic authorities to ban the eating of fondue in cable cars – a decision which has since been (thankfully) overturned.