The Swiss government wants to invest CHF988 million in cultural activities for the 2025-2028 period – less than it had initially planned. The aim is to make the culture sector more sustainable long-term.
This content was published on
3 minutes
Keystone-SDA
The Federal Council on Friday announced that it had adopted its culture message and strategy on March 1, 2024, and sent it to parliament to be finalised.
It includes the federal government’s overall strategy for Switzerland’s culture sector for 2025-2029, objectives, key measures and budgets for its support of the Federal Office of Culture, the Swiss Cultural Foundation Pro Helvetia and the Swiss National Museum.
“The pandemic has highlighted the precariousness of many cultural professionals and the predominance of atypical situations,” Swiss Culture Minister Elisabeth Baume-Schneider told reporters in Bern on Friday. The situation of many people working in the culture sector is precarious, particularly in terms of social security, she added.
The federal authorities intends to take steps to ensure fair and equal pay and to boost welfare measures. It wants to guarantee fair framework conditions that take into account the recommendations of professional associations.
Baume-Schneider pointed out that culture is an important economic sector in Switzerland. It accounts for around 10.4% of all Swiss companies, or 268,000 jobs.
Due to the financial situation of the federal authorities, the budget has been cut by CHF14 million compared to an earlier figure cited in June 2023. For the previous period, the culture budget was fixed at CHF942.8 million.
On Friday, Suisseculture, the umbrella organisation of cultural organisations, expressed its dismay at the lower-than-planned funding, which it said amounted to a “blow for the Swiss cultural sector”.
For the 2025-2028 period, the government has budgeted around CHF210 million for film and cinema. Pro Helvetia will get CHF187 million and the Swiss National Museum will receive CHF139 million. Other large sums will go towards the conservation of monuments (CHF126 million), languages (CHF80 million), the transfer of cultural property (CHF3 million) and the encouragement of culture (CHF159 million).
Translated from French by DeepL/sb,dos
This news story has been written and carefully fact-checked by an external editorial team. At SWI swissinfo.ch we select the most relevant news for an international audience and use automatic translation tools such as DeepL to translate it into English. Providing you with automatically translated news gives us the time to write more in-depth articles. You can find them here.
If you want to know more about how we work, have a look here, and if you have feedback on this news story please write to english@swissinfo.ch.
Popular Stories
More
Banking & Fintech
UBS releases ‘hundreds’ of staff in fresh wave of job cuts
Swiss study: Arabica cultivation areas could be halved by 2050
This content was published on
Around the world, the areas most suitable for growing the bean could even shrink by 60% if greenhouse gas emissions remain high.
This content was published on
The UN Human Rights Council approved the launch of this mechanism in Geneva on Friday, to be followed by an International Commission of Inquiry.
More than 100 wolves shot in Switzerland last year
This content was published on
Swiss hunters legally killed 101 wolves between February 1, 2024, and the end of January 2025. A further six died in accidents or from natural causes.
Swiss health office turns to Bluesky against backdrop of US censorship
This content was published on
The Swiss Federal Office of Public Health (FOPH) has joined the Bluesky social network, while US President Donald Trump works with X owner Elon Musk to censor content on official US websites.
Biotech company BioVersys is first Swiss IPO of 2025
This content was published on
The Basel-based biotech company BioVersys made the first initial public offering (IPO) of the year in Switzerland on Friday.
Much more spent on Swiss motorway vote campaigns than budgeted
This content was published on
Opponents and supporters of motorway expansion spent over CHF10 million ($11 million) on their campaigns, around a third more than announced in November.
Swiss researchers monitor animal populations with AI microphone
This content was published on
Researchers in Lausanne are using an intelligent microphone to make the animal world audible. The microphone automatically records animal sounds over large areas and analyses them using AI.
If you want to start a conversation about a topic raised in this article or want to report factual errors, email us at english@swissinfo.ch.
Read more
More
How Covid-19 hit the Swiss culture sector
This content was published on
An official information brochure has listed the negative impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the Swiss culture sector last year.
You can find an overview of ongoing debates with our journalists here . Please join us!
If you want to start a conversation about a topic raised in this article or want to report factual errors, email us at english@swissinfo.ch.