Switzerland Today

Dear Swiss Abroad,

What do a CHF9 billion takeover loss guarantee, a monastery trying to solve housing crisis and non-binary people not able to remove their gender from official documents have in common? Probably only the fact that they’re all happening in Switzerland today.

But first, let’s have a look at today’s news stories.

Copyright 2023 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.

In the news: UBS takeover loss guarantee, Annecy stabbing and Switzerland, and the new EU migration deal. 

• UBS has sealed a state-funded CHF9 billion takeover loss guarantee. The Swiss government has formally earmarked CHF9 billion ($9.9 billion) of taxpayer funds to plug potential losses arising from the UBS takeover of banking rival Credit Suisse. The contract between UBS and the federal government was signed today following signals that the takeover could be wrapped up by June 12. “With the takeover of Credit Suisse, UBS is also taking over a portfolio of assets that does not fit UBS’s core business and cannot be integrated into the bank’s business and risk profile,” the government stated on Friday.
• The man suspected of carrying out the knife attack in the French town of Annecy had applied for asylum in Switzerland, Italy and France, said French Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin. The youngest victims are aged 22 to 36 months, one of whom is being treated by the Geneva University Hospitals HUG. The children are now in stable condition.
• Swiss Justice Minister Elisabeth Baume-Schneider has called the new EU migration deal a “historic step”. She took part in the meeting in Luxembourg on Thursday, where EU home affairs ministers reached an agreement on reforms of the bloc’s asylum and migration system. Switzerland is not an EU member but has been part of Europe’s Schengen zone since 2008. The reforms will therefore affect the Alpine nation.

© Keystone / Urs Flueeler

The Swiss village of Engelberg is getting too expensive for locals. But the monastery might have the solution.

It’s not just big cities like Zurich that are becoming more expensive. Swiss mountain villages are also running out of affordable housing, reported SRFExternal link.

In Engelberg, an Alpine town of just over 3,000 people, “we have very few flats being advertised,” says the head of Englberg’s municipality, Benedicht Oggier. He adds that this is a problem for businesses too because “they have difficulties in finding skilled workers due to the lack of housing.”

So, who is to blame? Surely the proximity of the village to the mountains makes it very attractive to tourists, but others think that canton Obwalden’s low-tax strategy also contributes to rising rents. However, the cantonal government says this strategy is a success which has increased revenues from CHF89 million ($98 million) in 2018 to over CHF110 million ($122 million) in 2022.

If the causes are still to be defined, a solution could be on the horizon, thanks to the Engelberg monastery that wants to build 70 affordable flats on its site. “It’s not about pulling out the biggest possible thing. It’s about housing for local people,” says Christian Meyer, the abbot of the monastery.

The living space should remain affordable with a 4.5-room flat estimated to cost CHF2,000 ($2,200) per month. The idea is to start the construction as early as autumn 2024, with the first tenants moving in at the end of 2026. The total estimated cost would be around CHF50 million ($55 million).

But Oggier wants further clarification before going ahead, as the municipality does not want to simply build “out of the blue”. Once the project is approved, the people of Engelberg will have their say in a popular vote.  

© Keystone / Christian Beutler

Swiss Federal Court refuses gender exclusion from official documents.

The judges ruled unanimously: a person’s gender must not be deleted from birth certificates or civil status registers.

The case involved a non-binary person from canton Aargau who managed to get their gender deleted by the German authorities and Aargau’s Court of Appeal. This decision has now been overruled by the Federal Court, which said “sex is one of the elements of civil status governed by law and that its mention falls within the scope of Swiss principles on the keeping of registers”.

Since January 2022 it has been relatively easy to interchange the wording “male” and “female” in official documents, but leaving the gender information space blank is not an option, reports SRFExternal link. So, in this case, the non-binary person will not have a gender specified in German documents but will have it in their Swiss ones.

Marius Diserens, a Green councillor in Nyon, told RTSExternal link that the decision “contributes to make trans and non-binary people invisible“. Diserens estimates that 1.3% of people in Switzerland would be affected by this decision.

Public opinion in Switzerland has been highly divided on the topic and a recent survey published by the Tamedia newspaper group and 20 Minuten showed that 62% of respondents were opposed to the introduction of a third gender in official documents.

Keystone / Emilio Morenatti

Can researchers in Switzerland find a solution to cybersickness?

With major technology companies like Apple releasing new virtual and augmented reality devices, the tech sector is hoping to make huge profits from the metaverse. But there is one small – but important – obstacle: cybersickness.

This phenomenon refers to when people feel nauseous using VR devices. Some researchers in Switzerland are working on solutions to the problem.

Professor Piotr Didyk at the University of Italian-speaking Switzerland in Lugano leads a research team on this issue. “What interests me is how people perceive images,” he says. It is assumed that cybersickness is likely to manifest itself when VR programmes cause a discrepancy between what the eyes are seeing and what the inner ear is registering.

Last year, scientists at the federal technology institute ETH Zurich carried out the biggest field study so far in the area of cybersickness involving 837 volunteers.

So, can Switzerland find the solution to cybersickness? Didyk believes that cybersickness can be prevented through intelligent design of the applications. But Professor Christian Holz from ETH Zurich adds that “one of the most effective strategies against cybersickness is to take breaks.” Will users be willing to do that?