Switzerland Today
Dear Swiss Abroad,
In Friday's briefing we look at a few controversies that are making the Swiss public talk.
From accusations that Switzerland isn't doing enough to freeze Russian assets to protestors chanting "Glencore out" at the shareholders' Annual General Meeting, there's plenty to talk about.
And finally some "fake bloody" protests in Geneva against the court decision to clear Tariq Ramadan of sexual offence charges.
In the news: UBS-CS receives EU greenlight, Seco defends sanctions record, and holiday home prices dip.
- The European Commission has approved without conditions Swiss bank UBS’s takeover of rival Credit Suisse after regulators said the deal wouldn’t raise any significant competition issues. After a one-month long investigation into the effects on the European Economic Area (EEA), the commission concluded that UBS and Credit Suisse “are both global multinational investment banks” and their activities “overlap in wealth and asset management as well as in investment banking”.
- Swiss Secretary for Economic Affairs Helen Budliger Artieda has rejected criticism that Switzerland isn’t doing enough to freeze Russian assets under the sanctions’ regime. “It is a major challenge for our sanctions teams to find out who is the beneficial owner of any company construct,” said Artieda, who heads the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (Seco), in an interview published in the Aargauer Zeitung on Friday.
- The prices of holiday homes in the Alps rose by more than 7% in 2022 but there is likely to be a lull in 2023. The rise in prices is slowing in Switzerland, and in some regions prices have fallen slightly amid rising maintenance costs, normalised demand and a growing supply, according to the UBS Alpine Property Focus report released on Friday.
Switzerland makes progress on domestic violence, but there’s still a long way to go
According to the Federal Statistical Office (FSO) almost 20,000 domestic violence offences were recorded by the police in 2022. This is a 3.3% increase compared to the previous year.
As reported today by RTSExternal link, 25 people were killed due to domestic violence: more than half of the 42 homicides recorded. Most victims were women, but there were also three men and five children.
Today the federal government and cantons said they were making progress in adopting measures to tackle domestic violence. “We want to give a clear signal: domestic or sexual violence is not tolerated in Switzerland,” said the head of the justice department Elisabeth Baume-Schneider, in a press release.
This comes a day after a dozen of young women from the Young Socialists staged a protest in front of a Geneva courthouse to challenge the court’s decision earlier this week to clear Swiss scholar Tariq Ramadan of sexual offence charges.
“This decision demonstrates once again the dominance of rape culture in our society and the state’s inability to protect victims of violence,” said the organisation in a press release. However the police fined the protestors because the protest was not authorised, said Swiss newspaper 24heuresExternal link.
The government and cantons announced today that it plans to set up a 24/7 hotline for domestic violence victims by 2025. Other cantons are looking into a pilot project using electronic surveillance to warn potential victims when a perpetrator gets too close.
Glencore takes heat from all sides
It isn’t easy being big, especially when you are in the business of coal. One of the world’s largest commodity traders and miners, Glencore, got an earful today during its Annual General Meeting in Zug.
Around fifty protestors chanted “Glencore out” in front of the Theater Casino Zug where Glencore shareholders were gathering. They argue the company is destroying the environment through its coal mines in Colombia and displacing the Yukpa indigenous community. One protest banner read “Your money kills”.
This is far from the first time that Glencore has been the target of climate activists but this time, the pressure isn’t just coming from the streets. The company’s own shareholders have been demanding more transparency on the company’s coal plans. As the FT reported yesterday, a growing number of shareholders support a resolution asking the company to explain how its thermal coal production — the largest of any company outside China and India — is compatible with its climate goals.
How the company responds to all the coal queries is becoming a crucial business question as it tries to move ahead with a $23 billion hostile takeover bid for Canadian group Teck Resources. The bid has raised fresh questions about whether the Swiss miner might spin off its own coal business.
Independent report finds blatant lack of leadership at the Swiss Red Cross
An external report by Res Publica Consulting revealed a blatant lack of leadership in the Swiss Red Cross, reported Swiss public television SRFExternal link today.
The independent report, which was published on Wednesday, criticises the way the former director, Markus Mader, was dismissed last December, saying that the process was “intransparent, unprofessional and inhumane.” Mader had been the director since 2008 and, after his dismissal, four out of ten board members resigned too, led to speculation about divisions in the top management body of the organisation.
According to the report, the conflict with former director Mader originated from some structural issues and tensions between cantonal associations and the headquarters. However, it is still not clear why Mader was dismissed, writes SRF.
The criticism was addressed mainly at Barbara Schmid-Federer, the president of the Swiss Red Cross Council, who was accused of showing “little suitability and will to lead, as well as a lack of courage to face challenging or uncomfortable situations,” said the report.
Barbara Schmid-Federer rejected the accusations in a written statement from her spokesperson and added that the report contains factual errors. Markus Mader told Radio SRF that “the independent investigation report is a complete rehabilitation of my person and my actions.”
In compliance with the JTI standards
More: SWI swissinfo.ch certified by the Journalism Trust Initiative
