Switzerland Today

Dear Swiss Abroad,

winter is back. Snow is forecast for the weekend all the way down down to the plains.

While city dwellers are looking forward to winter sports in the mountains, the inhabitants of the mountain village of Sarreyer in Valais are keeping a close eye on the weather. If the only road into the village is snowed over, they are cut off from the outside world.

City dwellers have other problems, such as the fear of losing their rented flat. Just before Christmas, 250 people in Zurich were given notice to quit due to an announced total refurbishment.

Best wishes from Bern

Keystone / Christian Beutler

Open AI: Zurich strengthens its claim as the leading artificial intelligence centre in Europe.

Zurich is the capital of artificial intelligence (AI) in Switzerland. The arrival of the firm behind ChatGPT has sealed the deal.

In Zurich, the researchers want to push ahead with multimodal AI that can combine text, images and sound. To this end, Open AI has poached three leading researchers from its competitor Google to work in Switzerland, as the Neue Zürcher Zeitung writes. Before Open AI, Nvidia and AI Institute had already established themselves in Zurich.

The arrival of Open AI is an accolade for Zurich, according to the Greater Zurich Area marketing organisation. Mark Chen from Open AI calls Zurich a “leading European technology centre”. Apple, Disney, Huawei, Microsoft and Meta are also already here.

And who benefits from the new AI expertise in Zurich? The AI sector will not just create jobs for an intellectual elite, says the Greater Zurich Area location marketing manager. This development would also benefit conventional industries.

The article in the NZZExternal link (paywall)

KEYSTONE/Martin Ruetschi

Mass eviction in Zurich: heir sends 105 tenants eviction notices.

It’s not all good news in Zurich. Opposite the railway tracks, on the other side of Europaallee, where tech companies like to set up shop, what many tenants in Swiss cities fear has happened: 105 tenants were given notice to quit just a few weeks before Christmas. Over 250 people must vacate their flats by the end of February.

The colourful blocks were completed at the end of the 1990s. Builder, Leonard Bachmann, wanted to create affordable flats for families. He died three years ago. As reported by 20 Minuten, his estate was divided this autumn and the blocks now belong to his children. The mass eviction concerns the three buildings of one the heirs; the reason given is a complete renovation. The other heirs state that they will remain loyal to their father’s vision of affordable housing.

The eviction notice has caused quite a stir in Zurich. Right-wing politicians are also outraged but blame the political left for pushing green energy policies that require such building refurbishments.

The article in 20 MinutenExternal link

Keystone

Depending on the weather, the residents of Sarreyer are threatened with isolation.

There is probably no housing crisis in the village of Sarreyer in the canton of Valais. People there fear something else, namely that they will no longer be able to leave their village.

The main road to Sarreyer was destroyed by mudslides in the summer. The only access to the village is currently a diversion via a forest road. Although this is tarmac, it is at risk of being closed in the event of heavy snowfall or avalanches.

A cable car is being built so that the mountain village above the valley can be reached in all weathers. However, the project has been delayed and the opening is not planned until February.

“While they wait for the cable car, the residents are keeping a close eye on the weather,” states Swiss public television RTS. The local council has drawn up an emergency plan in case the municipality is cut off from the outside world for hours or even days. The plan particularly concerns the emergency services and schoolchildren attending classes in Verbier. However, the residents seem to be taking the situation in their stride: “We’re just people from the mountains. We know that if an avalanche comes, we stay at home and sleep in,” says one resident to RTS.

Watch the RTS reportExternal link

Keystone / Gaetan Bally

Support for print media in Switzerland: Parliament is in favour of indirect funding of the press.

The winter session of parliament began on Monday. Following the House of Representatives’ lead, the Senate has now also spoken out in favour of increasing indirect funding of the press.

Indirect press subsidy is about the delivery of newspapers. Up to now, the federal government has contributed CHF30 million a year for Swiss Post to deliver regional and local newspapers at a reduced price. The so-called ‘Gaillard savings plan’ envisages cancelling this support for the print media altogether, but the government did not want this.

In September, the House of Representatives voted in favour of increasing the contribution to CHF45 million in order to support small and medium-sized media in the transition phase towards digitalisation. Today, the Senate also voted in favour of the bill, albeit with a slighty lower payment of CHF40 million.

Read the details on NauExternal link

Keystone / Jean-Christophe Bott

Picture of the day

In sport and fashion, the body takes centre stage. In today’s picture of the day, it is encased in a work of art by Valais fashion designer Kevin Germanier. The outfit was shown at the opening of the exhibition “Fashion and sport, from one podium to another” at the Olympic Museum in Lausanne.

Adapted from German by DeepL/ac