Switzerland Today

Greetings from Zurich!

During a European heatwave, several countries have literally caught fire, including Spain and Greece. Now it’s Switzerland’s turn to battle forest fires, but the effort has led to a dispute between civilian services and the army.

More on that later, but first here’s the other news of the day.

© Keystone / Jean-christophe Bott

In the news: anarchists in the Helvetic Republic and a war of political words.

• Some 50 residents of villages in the vicinity of a raging forest fire in canton Valais are still unable to go home as firefighters try to control the ongoing blaze.
• Hundreds of anarchists have descended on the town of St Imier to mark the 150th anniversary of the founding of the Anti-Authoritarian International movement.
• A man who compared a politician to Hitler on Facebook has been fined for defamation of character.

© Keystone / Jean-christophe Bott

Helicopter turf war

It’s all hands to the pumps to put out a huge forest fire in canton Valais. But the arrival of army reinforcements has sparked a bizarre helicopter turf war.

The appearance of a second military Super Puma helicopter, equipped with infrared cameras to detect heat, has raised the hackles of Air Zermatt, according to the Walliser Bote newspaper.

The forest fire covers an area the size of 30 football pitches. That might sound a lot, but it’s not a huge amount of airspace to safely operate numerous helicopters.

Air Zermatt, which usually operates helicopters to rescue injured hikers and skiers, is principally concerned about the issue of ‘subsidiarity’. Put simply, this means the army should not get in the way of civilian operations.

The Walliser Bote has seen correspondence from Air Zermatt threatening to withdraw their helicopters if the army is not kept on a tight leash.

An army spokesperson told the newspaper that it is simply responding to a call for help and has no intention of competing with civilian operators.

“The colour of the helicopter doesn’t really matter – what counts is its impact,” said a clearly frustrated head of firefighting operations Mario Schaller.

In any case, the army is committed to help put out the fire until at least July 28.

© Keystone / Christian Beutler

Unrestricted travel

Switzerland’s little red book (otherwise known as a passport) is rightfully a source of national pride. But how well does it do the job of carrying people around the world?

Who better to answer this question than Henley & Partners – a company that invented the somewhat controversial service of buying citizenship in various countries.

Switzerland has the joint fifth most efficient passport in the world, along with the likes of New Zealand and Portugal, according to the latest Henley Passport Index. This measures the number of visa-free destinations offered to various nationalities.

This gives travelers access to countries without the time and expense of filling out visa forms – which could in nay case be refused by the destination country.

Switzerland has moved up two spots in the list with its passport giving visa-free access to 187 countries from a total 226 destinations.

Singapore has displaced Japan as having the most coveted passport (visa-free for 192 destinations) while holders of Afghanistan, Syrian and Iraqi passports have unrestricted access to just 27 countries.

Which should make you all glad to be the proud bearers of the Swiss passport.