Switzerland Today

This content was published on May 29, 2024 - 18:00

6 minutes

Born in London, Simon is a multimedia journalist who has worked for www.swissinfo.ch since 2006. He speaks French, German and Spanish and focuses on science, technology and innovation issues.

Dear Swiss Abroad,

Have you cut down on the amount of meat you eat for health or environmental reasons? Or do you plan to do so? This might not be that easy. Although the idea of cutting down on meat is gaining acceptance, cultural factors play an extremely strong role in preventing people from doing so, a new studyExternal link shows.

Bern researchers have studied meat-eating in Switzerland and Vietnam. In both countries meat is viewed as a status symbol and eating habits are deeply rooted. Changing people’s diets will require far more than personal willpower, they conclude.

Read on for more news and stories from Switzerland.

Chalet in Verbier. — Keystone / Cyril Zingaro

In the news: ETH Zurich/EPFL, climate verdict, Horizon Europe, pricey Alpine chalets and flats, Hamas ban.

Foreign students at federal technology institute ETH Zurich and Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne (EPFL) may soon have to pay at least three times as much as Swiss students in tuition fees. The House of Representatives adopted this proposal today. It now goes before the Senate. Currently, fees are the same for Swiss and foreign students.
The senior Swiss women who recently won a landmark climate case in the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) have sharply criticised a Swiss parliamentary committee that last week rejected the ruling.
Researchers in Switzerland can once again apply for certain Horizon Europe programmes starting on Wednesday.
Prices for chalets and apartments in the Swiss Alps continue to soar. Verbier (in photo above) has overtaken St. Moritz as the most expensive tourist destination in the Alps for holiday homes.
Swiss political parties have spoken out in favour of the Federal Council’s proposed ban on the Palestinian militant group Hamas.
The Geneva public prosecutor’s office on Tuesday demanded a three-year prison sentence for Tariq Ramadan, 18 months of which would be mandatory, in an appeal trial. It believes the Islamic scholar is guilty of raping a woman in a hotel room in Geneva in October 2008. He denies the charges.

Person getting blood pressure checked. — Keystone / Christian Beutler

The June 9 votes at a glance.

The campaigns for the June 9 votes have entered the final bend and the two initiatives to limit health insurance premiums and curb healthcare costs appear to have lost ground, according to the second poll by the Swiss Broadcasting Corporation (SBC).

Otherwise, it’s looking good for the Electricity Supply Act – and not so good for the “Stop compulsory vaccination” initiative, which could be clearly rejected by voters.

With less than two weeks to go, the premium relief initiative – the Social Democrat’s attempt to limit health insurance premiums to 10% of income – has 50% of voters’ support, the poll published today found. The yes camp has thus lost six percentage points compared with the first poll on May 3. Regional differences are also more significant: only 43% of respondents in German-speaking Switzerland are in favour of the proposal, while in French-speaking Switzerland the initiative is supported by 66%.

The Centre Party’s health initiative, which aims to oblige the government to take measures as soon as healthcare spending increases by 20% more than salaries, no longer appeals to a majority of voters and could well fail. According to the survey, 54% of those questioned by gfs.bern now intend to reject the initiative.

In other votes, 73% of respondents are in favour of the government’s proposal for the Electricity Supply Act, viewed as an essential step for the energy transition. But the “Stop compulsory vaccination” initiative – a proposal by groups opposed to the measures taken against Covid-19 during the pandemic – looks set to be rejected. Some 75% of those questioned now say they are against it.

Post office in Switzerland — Keystone / Jean-Christophe Bott

Swiss Post continues to shrink.

Swiss Post managers had promised to maintain 800 post office locations dotted across the country. It seems that further cost-cutting measures are necessary. Today it announced that it would close about one in five of its branch offices by 2028. This means that in four years’ time there will only be 600 post offices serving 2,000 locations. No jobs should be cut as a result, Swiss Post insists.

“We have to acknowledge that there has been a change in customer behaviour over the last four years,” Swiss Post CEO Roberto Cirillo told the Keystone-SDA news agency on Wednesday. The services at the counter are being used less and less. This is why Swiss Post must adapt its network.

But not everyone agrees.

“This is a surprisingly deep cut and this approach dents the credibility of the top management of the postal service, led by CEO Roberto Cirillo. And this in the year in which the postal service is celebrating its 175th anniversary,” SRF saidExternal link in a commentary.

The closure of branches used to be a major political issue in Switzerland, but the discussions and outrage have calmed down more recently. But this latest announcement by Swiss Post could stir things up again, says SRF.

The branches are being developed into “service centres”, according to Swiss Post. It is working together with banks, insurance companies, and authorities. Over the next four years, Swiss Post will invest over CHF100 million in staff, the modernisation of branches, and the development of new formats.

For locations where post offices must be closed, Swiss Post will work with municipalities to find follow-up solutions. For example, the “branch with partner” or the in-house service formats have proved successful. “We are confident that the population will continue to enjoy high quality public service from Swiss Post in the future,” said Cirillo.