Switzerland Today

Hello from Bern,

Patience is paying off for those in favour of e-voting. Today the government gave the greenlight to online voting in the federal elections for the Swiss abroad voters registered in three cantons. This wasn’t the only news out of the federal chancellery today.

Shortly after the e-voting announcement, Federal Chancellor Walter Thurnherr announced he was stepping down.

This and other news in today’s briefing from Switzerland.

In the News: E-voting goes ahead, a Gotthard tunnel update, and a major deficit cut.

© Keystone / Anthony Anex

• Walter Thurnherr, who has held the position of Switzerland’s unofficial “eighth cabinet minister” since 2016, will leave the job in December. The federal chancellor said his decision to bow out was not due to any political ill will, but that it was time to move on after decades in the civil service.
• The Federal Council has authorised the cantons of Basel City, St Gallen and Thurgau to trial electronic voting in the October elections for a limited number of voters, including the Swiss abroad registered to vote in those cantons.
• The government has considerably narrowed its projected deficit for 2023 to CHF1.5 billion ($1.71 billion) after – among other things – scrapping a CHF4 billion rescue mechanism for the electricity industry from spending estimates.
• The Italian government has pledged to help resolve problems in the Gotthard tunnel following last Thursday’s derailment of a freight train. The Swiss railway operator also pushed back the reopening of the tunnel to August 23 for some freight traffic, and even later for passenger traffic.
• The Swiss government decided to follow a decision by the EU preventing people from the occupied regions of Ukraine as well as breakaway parts of Georgia who have Russian-issued travel documents from requesting a visa to enter the Schengen Area.

© Keystone / Laurent Gillieron

The Swiss People’s Party makes music but not everyone likes the beat.

What happens when politicians make a music video? Well, it’s usually pretty entertaining. At least that was the case in 2015, when the Swiss People’s Party released its “We are SVPExternal link”, attracting more than 1 million views on YouTube.

The party wasn’t as lucky this time around. On Monday, the right-wing People’s Party released a new video called “Das isch d’SVP!” (This is the People’s Party!), with politicians like Energy Minister Albert Rösti dancing around. It was only available briefly on YouTube before being blocked because of a copyright complaint from Sony. The video remains unavailable on YouTube but you can catch part of it on Twitter under accounts like this oneExternal link from the comedian Karpi, whose tweet (I mean, X), was what prompted Sony to look into this matter, according to media reports.

The reason for the complaint was that the melody of the chorus was considered an adaptation of the song “We Are Family”, which was co-written by Nile Rodgers and became a worldwide hit when recorded by Sister Sledge in 1979.

Zurich parliamentarian Thomas Matter, who created the text and music for the campaign video, rejected the claims, arguing he wrote the song with a producer friend.

Rodgers condemned the use of the song by the SVP but not necessarily for copyright issues. His beef was that he only wants the song to be used by people or groups that keep with the values of the song, which are inclusion and diversity.

Kai Reusser / swissinfo.ch

Green party sees the forest through the trees. Can it make up lost ground though?

As part of our ongoing election coverage, today we look at the Green Party. The party is perhaps best known for their stance on environmental issues, specifically climate change. But the party’s agenda goes far beyond this.

“Our party has a broader view of life than others,” said Green Party secretary Rahel Estermann. By this, she means that the party is very much concerned with global issues, Switzerland’s role in them, and how to cooperate across borders to address them. The break down of relations between Bern and Brussels is one of the key areas of concern for the party, said Estermann.

The Greens just set up an international section and are making moves to be more accessible to citizens abroad. One example of this is its position on citizenship. “We see no problem in the Swiss Abroad being able to pass on their citizenship beyond the third generation,” she said.

The Greens are currently facing headwinds according to the latest polls. Climate change was on the top of people’s minds in 2019, which helped the party make big gains. But a lot can happen in four years – a pandemic, a war, a banking crisis. How this weighs on voters is still to be seen.