The Week in Switzerland

Dear Swiss Abroad,
 
Welcome to our selection of some of the biggest – and most colourful – stories in Switzerland over the past seven days.
 
Have you already voted in tomorrow’s four nationwide referendums? Or are you sitting by a lake and seeking inspiration on which box to tick? (Probably too late for that if you’re planning on voting by post.) If you have voted – and even if you haven’t – make sure you go to SWI swissinfo.ch for all the latest results and reactions.
 
Also in this week’s briefing, will tax rises result in hordes of Swiss pensioners retiring abroad? Can Switzerland play its cards right with Donald Trump? What can Switzerland do to safeguard its cultural heritage abroad? And, keeping the sweetest story until last, why are people queueing in Zurich for a bar of chocolate?

The big stories of the week

Ballot boxes. Keystone / Gian Ehrenzeller

The Swiss go to the polls tomorrow, as they do four times a year, to vote on four referendums at the national level and various other issues at cantonal and municipal level.

It’s not out of the question that the government will be defeated on all four issues, reflecting a growing loss of confidence in the authorities.

As for the Swiss Abroad, we’ll be keeping a close eye on how your voting patterns correspond to voters in Switzerland. In the first poll, the diaspora was surprisingly favourable to expanding the motorway network – they backed it considerably more than the Swiss population as a whole. Now, half support it, half oppose it. This is more in line with the usual behaviour of the Swiss Abroad, who tend to vote greener than the overall population.

• Results of the second poll ahead of the November 24 votes

No money worries in old age: for many, emigration is the path to happiness. Keystone

Is the government’s latest idea to reduce the budget deficit going to result in a wave of Swiss people retiring abroad?

Part of the plan, which is still in its early stages and has yet to pass through parliament, is to drastically increase the tax rate for lump-sum pension withdrawals. Opponents fear this would particularly disincentivise the middle class from funding their own retirement and make emigration even more appealing to retirees.

Pensioners who live abroad only pay withholding tax on their pension withdrawals. However, pension experts told the Handelszeitung that tax benefits alone were unlikely to drive emigration. Moving abroad temporarily to lower one’s tax burden is unfeasible, they said, as Swiss taxes would be due again on their return.

“So there probably won’t be a big wave of emigration,” the paper concluded. Still, one thing’s clear, it added: “the Swiss Abroad are the ones who are laughing.”

• Taxes on pension payments: no problem for the Swiss Abroad
• Swiss tax plans make moving abroad attractiveExternal link (Handelszeitung, German)

As he did during his first term in office, president-elect Trump is pushing an “America First” foreign policy agenda. Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.

Is Switzerland ready for Trump 2.0?

Ahead of the US presidential election on November 5 we looked at what the return of Donald Trump or a new administration under Kamala Harris would mean for Switzerland. Now that we know the result, we consider how Switzerland can prepare for Trump 2.0.

Trump is expected to adopt an isolationist and unpredictable foreign policy. If this happens, how will Switzerland, which favours a stable, rules-based international system, maintain a smooth relationship with the United States, a key trading partner? Are there opportunities to be seized?

We hear from former US ambassadors to Bern, international trade experts, political scientists and politicians.

• Former Ambassador Edward McMullen: Europe misunderstands TrumpExternal link (NZZ, English)

A success story abroad: the Swiss Edelweiss Village. Swiss Edelweiss Village Foundation

Edelweiss Village, the historic homes of Swiss mountain guides in Canada’s Rocky Mountains, has been saved – but what can Switzerland do to safeguard its cultural heritage abroad?

“The Swiss government cannot contribute financially to infrastructure projects abroad,” said the Swiss ambassador to Canada in this interview. However, that doesn’t mean the Swiss authorities are doing nothing. And, as seen with Edelweiss Village, the Swiss Abroad can play a central role.

• The miraculous resurrection of Canada’s Edelweiss Village

A slab of Dubai chocolate in Zurich. Keystone / Walter Bieri

One of our most popular stories this week was the news that “Dubai chocolate” had arrived in Switzerland.

Queues formed outside the Lindt chocolate factory in Kilchberg, canton Zurich, hoping to snag one of only 500 bars being sold in the Lindt Museum store for CHF14.95 ($16.80) each. The chocolate, which is causing a stir on social media in particular, is filled with pistachio cream and kadayif, crispy pastry threads that are often used in oriental desserts.

Also this week we looked at an issue that might give chocaholics sleepless nights: the increasingly challenging situation for cocoa farmers in Madagascar, which is crucial for the future of Swiss chocolate.

How did a country without a single homegrown cocoa bean become one of the world’s leading chocolate manufacturers? A few years ago I looked at how the history of chocolate as we know it is the history of Swiss innovation, immigration, luck – and love: Switzerland’s chocolate revolution.

• How the Swiss help Madagascar’s cacao farmers confront climate change    
• The viral Dubai chocolate craze has reached Europe – what makes the bar so special?External link (The Independent)

Quirky Switzerland

A defending side at the 1998 Intercantonal Hornussen Festival. Keystone

If a plastic puck being fired at you at up to 300km/h isn’t your cup of tea, maybe give the Swiss sport of Hornussen a miss. But if you want to take part in a 400-year-old tradition sometimes known as “farmers’ golf”, strap on a helmet and give it a go!

What are the sport’s origins, what are the rules, and what do you do if you fancy a game? It’s all here.

Photo of the week

Keystone / Peter Schneider

Ted talk? Swiss Economics Minister Guy Parmelin and Bernese politician Christine Häsler pose with a teddy bear and pupils on Tuesday for the second National Exchange Week, when more than 3,500 schoolchildren from all over Switzerland cross cultural and linguistic borders.

The week ahead

Keystone / Peter Klaunzer

On Monday tens of thousands of onion lovers will head to Bern for the Zibelemärit, the annual onion market, for a bit of bulb-based bacchanalia. Here’s a potted history of the festival and a behind-the-scenes videoExternal link showing the hard work – and early start – for stall holders.

Thursday marks 176 years since Bern was chosen as the Swiss capital (or federal city, to be precise). Here’s a fascinating article on why Switzerland’s fifth-largest city got the gig.

And there’s another anniversary on Friday: 15 years since Swiss voters banned the construction of minarets, triggering all sorts of international criticism and political arguments. Here’s an article we wrote exactly five years ago, looking at what had changed.

Edited by Samuel Jaberg/ac