Switzerland Today

Hello from Bern

Church bells for peace and calls for equal rights and inclusion for people with disabilities. These were the sounds heard on the streets of Bern today. More news and updates in today's briefing from Switzerland.

Keystone / Ennio Leanza

In the News: Credit Suisse’s climate risks and investigating discrimination in the army

• A major investor coalition with more than CHF2 trillion in assets under management is pressing Credit Suisse to cut its financing of fossil fuels. The group filed a shareholder resolution today calling on Switzerland’s second largest bank to change its bylaws so that it reports on its exposure to climate risks and how it plans to reach goals set out in the Paris Climate Agreement. It could be the first climate-related resolution voted on within a Swiss company.
• Parliament agreed to produce a report on the treatment of homosexuals in the Swiss army until the 1990s. This is part of the country’s “coming to terms” with injustices inflicted on homosexuals and could result in reparations to people who experienced discrimination. One politician detailed how the letters “HS” were written in pencil on some uniforms. Even after 1992, there were still “HS” entries and references to blacklists to keep gay people away from higher ranks.
• A district court in Switzerland acquitted four defendants accused of inciting violence against the Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan. The judge ruled that a banner with the words “Kill Erdogan with his own weapons” shown by protesters at a 2017 demonstration in Bern had symbolic value and should not be seen as a call to action. The demonstration prompted an diplomatic outcry from Turkey, which asked for an investigation into the protesters.

Keystone / Vitaliy Hrabar

Swiss solidarity with Ukraine tops CHF15 million

The church bells rang out at 10am throughout Switzerland today to show support for Ukraine and call for peace. This is just one of many big and small actions that have taken place in the country as part of National Solidarity Day. In an early morning address, Swiss president Ignazio Cassis called on the Swiss public to show their generosity, saying “every franc counts”.

In partnership with SWI swissinfo.ch’s parent company the Swiss Broadcasting Corporation, the Swiss Solidarity charityExternal link has been taking pledges from donors throughout the day. By midday it reported that it had received CHF15 million in donations for humanitarian assistance in Ukraine and to support Ukrainian refugees fleeing the violence.

Some towns and families have started to welcome Ukrainian refugees. Swiss public radio SRF reported on the Pestalozzi “children’s village” in Trogen – a town of just over 1,600 people in canton Appenzell. The non-profit organisation was set up in 1946 to take in children orphaned during the Second World War but it hasn’t provided a home to refugee families since 2014. Now the woody house in the middle of the mountains is providing safety and a temporary home for 37 women and children from Ukraine.

There are around 16,000 households in Switzerland that have registered to accept refugeesExternal link. This could mean beds for around 40,000 people. As of Wednesday, around 1,300 Ukrainian refugees had arrived in Switzerland.  

Keystone / Alessandro Della Valle

Russian jet setters are stuck in Switzerland with nowhere to go

Russia is increasingly isolated from the rest of the world. McDonald’s is closing its shops, Nestlé has stopped advertisements and investments, and even the World Economic Forum says it is freezing relations with Russia’s top ranks.

“We are not engaging with any sanctioned individual and have frozen all relationsExternal link with Russian entities,” Amanda Russo, a WEF spokesperson, told POLITICO. WEF is still keeping the door open to being a bridge-builder though. POLITICO writes that WEF has always walked a tightrope for decades when it comes to Russia: “basking in the Kremlin’s attention while cringing over oligarch antics”.

It would be hard for any Russian oligarchs to fly to Switzerland for a meeting with WEF founder Klaus Schwab given how many Russian private jets appear to be parked at airports in Switzerland with no place to go. Since Russian aircraft were banned from Swiss and EU airspace, various Swiss media have reported that the private jets are piling upExternal link. SRF reported that one luxury plane at Euroairport Basel apparently belongs to Roman Abramovich. Russian billionaires Viktor Vekselberg and Mikhail Prokhorov also appear to have planes in Basel.

According to Le Temps, six private Russian planesExternal link, in addition to that of Aeroflot, are currently stuck at Geneva airport.

Apparently Swiss airports have a good reputation when it comes to technical assistance for private jets. Plus, said aviation specialist Michael Schwendener in an interview: people like to come here “because they can combine it with banking or a visit to the doctor”.

Keystone / Peter Klaunzer

Is there a pandemic gender gap?

Where are all the women explaining the Covid crisis? According to an analysisExternal link of the Swiss media database by Tamedia, female experts were often invisible in reports on the pandemic.

Christoph Berger, Switzerland’s vaccination chief, appears in almost 7,000 articles in 2020 and 2021. Tanja Stadler, who is the head of the Swiss Covid Science Taskforce, appears in only half as many articles. The only other female expert in the top ten is Isabella Eckerle who was cited in around 2,000 articles.

It’s not that there aren’t any highly reputable female epidemiologists. Many were even advising the government on managing the pandemic, such as Nicole Probst-Hensch and Olivia Keizer. Are the men just more media hungry? Were they more available for comment? Or were women more reluctant to share opinions on topics beyond their specific area of expertise? Some insights in this storyExternal link in German.