Switzerland Today

Hello from Bern,

Switzerland may have received the cold shoulder from Beijing but it still has friends out there and making more of them thanks to its growing use of social media. Today, the government announced it has created a dedicated English-language account on X to help it communicate abroad.

More on this and other news in today’s briefing.

Keystone / Etienne Laurent

In the News: A new account on X, a new popular initiative, and a government minister joins memorial for victims of Hamas attacks.

• The Swiss government wants to make its international work better known abroad. For this reason, it is now providing information via an English channel on X, formerly Twitter.
• A memorial service for the victims of the terrorist attacks on Israel by Hamas was held at a synagogue in Bern on Monday evening. Swiss government minister Albert Rösti attended and offered condolences on behalf of the federal government.
• The citizens’ movements Friends of the Constitution, Mass-Voll and Aufrecht Schweiz, together with the Pirate Party, have launched the popular initiative for stronger Swiss constitutional rights.
• The University of Bern has fired without notice a lecturer who had made positive comments about the Hamas attacks on Israel. An administrative investigation of the Middle East Institute has also been initiated and a co-director temporarily relieved of her duties.

Keystone / Sergei Savostyanov /sputnik / Kr

Switzerland gets sidelined on the Silk Road. Is this a sign of changing relations with China?

Switzerland didn’t get an invitation to the third Belt and Road Forum, which China is hosting this week, according to Le Temps. The meeting marks the 10^th anniversary of the Belt and Road Initiative – the massive infrastructure project to connect Asia with Africa and Europe via land and maritime networks.

Some 130 countries were invited. Russian President Vladimir Putin is expected to make an appearance as a distinguished guest along with the Hungarian prime minister and the Serbian president.

A spokesperson for the foreign ministry told Le Temps that Switzerland has not yet received an invitationExternal link to participate in the forum. In the last edition in April 2019, the Swiss President at the time, Ueli Maurer, attended and paid a state visit. Switzerland even signed a memorandum of understanding regarding the infrastructure initiative and a spokesperson told the paper it doesn’t plan to withdraw its intent to help Swiss companies collaborate with Chinese partners via the project.

© Keystone / Peter Klaunzer

A woman in the race for a seat at the table. What does this mean for the magic formula?

Evi Allemann announced she plansExternal link to run for Alain Berset’s seat on the Federal Council. This isn’t the first time the Social Democratic Party member has made a run for it. Last time, she was hoping to take fellow party member Simonetta Sommaruga’s seat, which was taken by Elisabeth Baume-Schneider.

This time is different because she is trying to fill a seat occupied by a man. Only men have raised their hands to fill the seat since Berset announced he was stepping down. Should it matter? Not to Allemann. “I’m running because I want to help shape things, not because I’m a woman,” Allemann told the Tages-Anzeiger. 

If she were to succeed, this would give women a majority of the seven seats on the Federal Council – something that has only happened for one year since the founding of the modern state of Switzerland.