Switzerland Today

Dear Swiss Abroad,

today we would like to introduce you to a Swiss Abroad with a particularly challenging job. He is the UN's head of mission in Jerusalem and is at the centre of the escalating conflict between Israel and the Lebanese Islamist militia Hezbollah.

What's more, as every autumn, the government has to announce that health insurance premiums in Switzerland will rise again next year.

Best wishes from Bern

SWI swissinfo.ch

This Swiss national is at the centre of the conflict between Israel and the Hezbollah militia. His job is to monitor the Israeli-Lebanese border area for the UN.

Tamedia presents a very special Swiss Abroad: Patrick Gauchat is the UN’s head of mission in Jerusalem and currently has one of the most difficult jobs in the world. However, when asked by the journalist, the officer replies with the conviction of a general: “No.”

He regularly travels in a heavily secured convoy in northern Israel, where his job is to observe, monitor and report to the UN. “My presence there is important,” he says. However, in view of the escalating situation in the border area, he had to decide whether to minimise his team’s operations and withdraw the civilian staff from the danger zone.

Gauchat believes that it is important for neutral Switzerland to act as a mediator in global politics. “I can say with conviction that we Swiss are made for this,” he is quoted as saying in the article. After all, Switzerland has no colonial legacy and therefore still has a good reputation. “In any case, I’m still talking to all sides,” he says.

• The article in the Tages-AnzeigerExternal link (Paywall).

Keystone / Peter Klaunzer

Health insurance premiums will rise again by an average of 6%. This was announced by Health Minister Elisabeth Baume-Schneider this afternoon in Bern.

Being Switzerland’s health Minister is not an easy job: every autumn the incumbent has to confront the Swiss public with rising health insurance premiums once again. In 2023 it was 6.6% more, in 2024 it rose by 8.7%, and in 2025 it will rise again by 6%. In percentage terms, premiums will rise the least in the cantons of Basel-City (1.5%) and Schaffhausen (3.8%), compared to 10.5% in the canton of Ticino.

Baume-Schneider announced to the media that the average monthly premium in the coming year will be CHF 378.70 (CHF 449.20 for adults). The reason she gave for the increase in premiums was – drumroll – the sharp rise in healthcare costs and inflation.

In order to get costs under control, the minister emphasised that it was up to Parliament. The population can also vote on this issue on November 24. This is when the Federal Health Insurance Act will be put to the ballot box, which is about standardised financing of benefits.

• More details on SRF NewsExternal link.

SWI swissinfo.ch

The camps for young Swiss abroad are on the brink of being cancelled. However, the Organisation of the Swiss Abroad (OSA) is working on new formats to ensure that the meetings in Switzerland can continue.

The OSA is struggling with a problem that many Swiss organisations and clubs are also familiar with: Younger people no longer want to get involved. This was demonstrated by the low level of interest in the young Swiss Abroad online congress in mid-September. The organisation therefore decided to discontinue this congress.

The traditional Swiss Abroad Congress in the summer will now only take place every four years, as we have already reported. However, the camps for young Swiss Abroad remain popular. But the OSA is losing money. It is now considering offering something else in this area, as my colleague Janine Gloor writes in her article.

The organisation is now considering “organising themed events on Switzerland as a country of research and innovation, where participants can gain insights that they would not otherwise have, for example by visiting a company or a start-up”.

• Here is the article on the new strategy.

Keystone/Martin Ruetschi

Attention night owls! Swiss Federal Railways is planning to introduce a nationwide night-time network from 2027. This is revealed by documents that the CH Media Group newspapers were able to access.

Go home early or party all night. CH Media newspapers have revealed the “Vision 2027” project: trains are to run around the clock between the different parts of the country on Friday and Saturday nights and from Saturday to Sunday – probably from the timetable change at the end of 2026 – and connect the metropolitan areas of Basel, Zurich and the Lake Geneva basin.

Good news for anyone who has booked an early flight: the railways want to provide additional early connections to the three airports of Zurich, Geneva and Basel, either by train or, in Basel, by bus from the railway station.

Incidentally, a first step in the project is already due to be realised this December. The night S-Bahn trains from Lucerne to Sursee will be extended to Olten and two new night S-Bahn connections will be introduced from Winterthur via Zurich to Olten and vice versa, as reported by the Luzerner Zeitung.

• The Luzerner Zeitung External linkfirst reported the story.

Keystone / Martial Trezzini

Photo of the day

The Swiss weather service had announced a level three warning for heavy rain today. The rainy weather didn’t seem to affect these holidaymakers, who danced in their tippets in the rain and in front of the fountains on the Place des Nations in Geneva.

Adapted from German by DeepL/ac