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.
“For sale: baby shoes, never worn,” is the famous six-word example of flash fiction often misattributed to Ernest Hemingway. Biking into the office in Bern on Wednesday, I noticed a bright collection of children’s wellies (pictured) on the square outside parliament. It turned out they were part of a campaign ahead of a childcare debate in the Senate.
In this week’s briefing we look at the federal budget for 2025, the eye-watering cost of a cup of coffee in Switzerland, valid driving licences for the Swiss Abroad, the unimpressed Swiss reaction to US President Joe Biden’s pardoning of his son, and the words of the year.
Finally, a riddle: why did one of my colleagues, when he was a kid in German-speaking Switzerland, carry scissors in his trousers on December 6? Discover the answer – and a lot more – in my cultural analysis of Schmutzli, the mysterious cloaked companion of Samichlaus.
The big stories of the week
Parliamentarians have been at work all week, trying to balance the books and work out where they can save money.
On Monday the Patrouille Suisse, the Swiss Air Force’s acrobatic display team, was grounded by the Senate because the costs of maintaining the F-5 Tiger jets were considered too high.
On Thursday the House of Representatives approved the 2025 budget. It increased spending on the army and spared agriculture but cut the foreign aid budget by CHF250 million ($282 million). Those on the political left rejected the budget.
Parliament also decided to tighten the granting of S status to Ukrainians: this should only be granted to people who come from regions occupied by Russia or affected by the fighting.
- The main points of the budget for 2025External link (RTS, French)
How much do you pay for a coffee in a Swiss café? “Too much,” you might say. Well, there’s bad news: the average price for a cup has just gone up again for the fifth year in a row.
A café crème currently costs an average of CHF4.58 ($5.17) in German-speaking Switzerland, Swiss public television, SRF, reported on Monday. While the cheapest coffee can be found in canton Aargau (CHF2.50), the cheapest coffee canton on average is Solothurn (CHF4.45). The dearest canton on average is Zug (CHF4.84), but you can expect to pay up to CHF6 for a simple brew in Zurich.
Facing prices like these, Italians would be taking to the streets: disruptions in global coffee supply caused by climate change could force them to pay up to €2 (CHF1.85) per coffee, the Financial Times reported recently. “Still charmingly cheap for Londoners or New Yorkers but a shock for Romans.” An espresso is currently about €1.20 in Italy and a cappuccino €1.50.
Internationally, only the Danes pay more for their coffee than the Swiss, according to this analysisExternal link.
- A cup of coffee costs more and moreExternal link (SRF, German)
- Soaring coffee prices have Italians ‘afraid and panicking’External link (Financial Times, paywall)
- Your favourite coffee was probably made by a Swiss machine (SWI)
Have you still got a blue paper Swiss driving licence? Do you know whether it’s valid or not?
“I’ve been living abroad for years, but I still have a Swiss passport and a blue driving licence that’s now invalid,” a reader called Felix wrote to the team of experts at newspaper 20 Minuten. “Who does the exchange – the embassy or the Swiss Road Traffic Office?
“Dear Felix,” the team replied on Wednesday, “if you’ve lived abroad for a longer period of time, neither the Swiss embassy nor a Swiss road traffic office is responsible for your driving licence, but the local national authority. We’re currently receiving many enquiries from Swiss nationals living abroad who still have the blue driving licence, which has been invalid since November. However, unlike a passport, it’s not your nationality that determines your driving licence, but your place of residence: you must apply for your new driving licence wherever you live.”
The paper licence no longer meets today’s security standards, so they now need to be in a credit card format (pictured). “By the way,” the experts added. “If you live in Switzerland and still drive with a ‘blue licence’, you legally have a driving licence but will be fined for not having a valid document.”
The Swiss words of the year have been chosen!
Unterschriften-Bschiss (signatures scam) has been chosen by the Zurich University of Applied Sciences (ZHAW) as the Swiss-German word of the year for 2024. This topped the ranking because the forging of signatures and identities on initiative collection forms by commercial signature collectors has generated plenty of heated debate this year, the department of applied linguistics said on Tuesday. Trust in the democratic Swiss voting system has been severely undermined as a result, it said.
Words of the year were also chosen for the other three Swiss national languages. In French, the honour went to cessez-le-feu (ceasefire), in Italian non binario (non-binary) and in Romansh segundimorant:a (second homer).
On Monday the White House said US President Joe Biden had pardoned his son Hunter in part to protect him from future persecution from political opponents, but the move drew considerable criticism – including in Switzerland.
“Joe Biden exposes his political hypocrisy” was the headline of the editorial in the Neue Zürcher Zeitung (NZZ). Hunter Biden had been prosecuted for tax offences and charges related to possession of a firearm after being targeted for years by Republicans in Congress.
“In his statement, President Biden seeks to arouse understanding among citizens: what father wouldn’t show similar compassion for his son if he could? But that’s completely missing the point. Biden is not just any father. He is the President of the United States of America. As such, he is subject to different moral requirements – and the resulting burdens – than any normal citizen,” the NZZ wrote.
“By showing weakness for his son, Biden is not only damaging his own carefully polished image as a clean man. He is providing his successor [Donald Trump], of all people, with a template for using the justice system for his own selfish ends.”
- Pardoning the president’s son: Joe Biden exposes his political hypocrisyExternal link (NZZ, German, paywall)
- Joe Biden doesn’t do it any better than TrumpExternal link (Tages-Anzeiger, German, paywall)
- Biden could do so much good with pardons. Instead he bailed out his sonExternal link (Guardian)
Quirky Switzerland
Friday was St Nicholas Day, when Samichlaus (the Swiss-German version of St Nicholas) and his sinister sidekick Schmutzli go from house to house, giving children praise, treats and nightmares. But who is Schmutzli?
I looked at his fascinating evolution from basically a child abductor to a cuddly distributor of treats – and whether his black make-up is problematic.
Photo of the week
A New Year’s Eve Claus from Appenzell walks through the Senate on Monday in honour of the newly elected president of the Senate, Andrea Caroni. Normally, these Clauses go from courtyard to courtyard on New Year’s Eve (January 13) to ring in the New Year.
The week ahead
Construction progress: on Tuesday Bern Minster, the Swiss capital’s cathedral (pictured), will hold a media event to mark the completion of work on its nave vault. On Wednesday, the new train station will be inaugurated in Grindelwald, in time to welcome hordes of skiers.
On Thursday, we’ll be watching the federal court to see how the judges rule on a controversial nationwide vote in 2022 which raised the age of retirement for women. In August it emerged that federal financial forecasts for the pension system had been miscalculated. Could the correct figures have changed the result? Will the vote have to be repeated?
Edited by Samuel Jaberg/ac
More
Switzerland, the promised land of coats of arms
More
How Swiss festive bad boy Schmutzli cleaned up his act
More
Swiss government rejects proposed super-rich inheritance tax
More
More than 58,000 Swiss sign petition for night trains
More
Karin Keller-Sutter officially named Swiss president for 2025
In compliance with the JTI standards
More: SWI swissinfo.ch certified by the Journalism Trust Initiative
