Switzerland Today

Dear Swiss Abroad,

As the sun sets over Lake Lucerne and the Bürgenstock summit, we give a short round-up of views on the outcome of the Swiss-hosted conference on the war in Ukraine.

Read on for more news and stories from Switzerland.

Keystone / Gaetan Bally

In the news: traffic jams, Swiss economic upturn, growing old, third gender ID and news avoidance.

• Traffic congestion hit a new record on roads in Switzerland last year, according to federal statistics.
• A hoped-for upturn in the Swiss economy will soon become a reality with support coming from Europe, according to the KOF Swiss Economic Institute.
• Six out of ten people in Switzerland are against the use of a third gender option on official documents, a survey shows.
• More people in Switzerland are actively avoiding the news, a study suggests.
• A new study of 2,000-year-old skeletons found in western Switzerland has concluded that their cause of death may have been a tsunami.
• Growing old appears to be much more important for residents in southern Switzerland than in the rest of the country, according to a Sanitas-commissioned survey.

Keystone / Eda / Pool / Urs Flueeler

How successful was the Swiss-hosted Ukraine peace conference?

Following the two-day summit in Switzerland, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy hailed the “first steps toward peace”. Swiss President said the final declaration sent a “strong signal that changes are needed. There are common ideas for a fair and lasting peace”.

Eighty-four out of around 100 states and organisations at the Summit on Peace in Ukraine, held at the Bürgenstock resort overlooking Lake Lucerne, signed a joint communiqué. 

But Western powers and their allies failed to persuade major non-aligned states to join their final statement, and no country came forward to host a sequel.

Russia, which was not invited, ridiculed the event from afar. The Kremlin said on Monday it had produced negligible results and showed the futility of holding talks without Russia. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters the results of the meeting were “close to zero”.

Observers and politicians in Switzerland appeared dividedExternal link on the outcome. The world’s media also gave a mixed reaction.

Keystone / Christian Beutler

100 postal workers attacked by dogs every year

Every year, around a hundred Swiss postal workers and couriers are bitten by dogs, according to statistics from Suva, Le Matin Dimanche and the SonntagsZeitung newspapers reported on Sunday.

Dogs perceive their comings and goings as an intrusion by a potentially harmful stranger and therefore defend their territory, saidExternal link Anja Papenberg, a dog trainer in Kloten, canton Zurich.

After the first encounter, the dog believes it has managed to chase away the intruder. But if they return, “in the eyes of the dog, the postal workers are therefore clearly resistant to the warnings”.

The fact that they deliver letters and parcels quickly make dogs suspicious, says Christian Lenz, an animal psychologist from Zurich.

Postal workers receive training in animal behaviour. Recommendations are clear: “Don’t move when a dog rushes at you, slow your movements and don’t look it straight in the eye – as this is a provocation.”

Owners can help reduce the risk of attack by keeping their dog inside the house or in the garden on a long lead, or by placing the mailbox directly against the garden fence and not putting the dog’s bed directly in front of the front door, as this tells the animal that it is “the bouncer”, says Lenz.