Switzerland Today

Hello from Bern,

Here are the latest news and stories from Switzerland on Thursday!

Keystone / Gian Ehrenzeller

In the news: organisations launch petition to counter “worrying” growth of the use of face recognition technology.

• Three organisations, including the Swiss chapter of Amnesty International, have called for a ban on automatic face recognition devices and video surveillance technology in Switzerland. The technologies represent a “worrying step towards a comprehensive and permanent system of mass surveillance,” with some police forces already using them, the groups claimed as they launched their petition.
• The amount of money in sustainable investment funds in Switzerland has more than doubled in the past year and now comes to CHF775 billion ($836 billion), the Lucerne University of Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts said today. It’s the latest sign that the growing trend of “green finance” is very much present in Switzerland, with the government also keen to carve a niche as a key sustainable finance location.

Keystone/Peter Klaunzer

Covid update 1: officials reject another tightening of measures; health expert (still) not optimistic about the outlook.

Health Minister Alain Berset, who has been (thankfully) a bit less in the news the past while, was back today with comments on the Covid-19 in Switzerland and the speculation about new measures. Are measures coming? No, says Berset, or at least not yet: although cases are rising (there were over 6,000 today, the most in the past 12 months), hospital workers are “exhausted”, and a further worsening is “inevitable” in the winter months, “we are reluctant to take further measures”. As for the tightening in neighbouring countries like Austria, Berset says “every country has its own policy”.

Is the situation sustainable? Prominent epidemiologist Christian Althaus, in the Neue Zürcher Zeitung todayExternal link, is less optimistic (though, in fairness, if we have learned one thing during the pandemic, it’s that epidemiologists rarely bear good tidings…). “This winter will be again difficult,” says Althaus, who says it’s premature to talk about an imminent “end” to the pandemic – even with 65% of the population vaccinated and others naturally immune. The certificate should stay, and a widening of mask-wearing, as well as another home-office order, would be “appropriate”, he says. Meanwhile, he reckons “mild” measures like a mask obligation, could be with us for some time.

Keystone / Michael Buholzer

Covid update 2: the pandemic is affecting citizen efforts to gather signatures for democratic initiatives.

Last year, during the first (or the second? or was it the third?) wave of Covid-19, we wrote about a less visible threat that the pandemic could have on Swiss democracy – the ability to go out onto the streets and collect signatures for initiatives (for non-initiates: in Switzerland 100,000 signatures are needed for a national vote on a people’s initiative; 50,000 are needed to force a referendum on a law passed by parliament). With social distancing, limits on numbers allowed to gather, and the fact that everybody was basically at home watching online videos, the impact on “people power” was potentially big.

Today’s Tages-Anzeiger claimsExternal link that for “probably the first time”, an initiative has indeed fallen victim. The “micro-tax” initiative, which wanted to get rid of VAT and impose a tax on financial transactions instead, fell just short of the democratic post with 93,000 signatures – a “total frustration”, says campaigner Oswald Sigg, who reckons that the problem was not just the lack of people on the street, but also the fact that the media have been talking about nothing much else apart from Covid for the past year (just in case Mr Sigg is reading: SWI swissinfo.ch has written severaltimes about his microtax idea!).

What can be done to help? Expert Daniel Graf tells the Tages-Anzeiger that authorities should rethink the decision to phase out an eased signature approval process this month. Sigg says maybe politicians should be barred from participating in people’s initiatives, since their political weight and connections often gives them a big advantage over citizen-led issues. One thing not however mentioned is the obvious counter-example of the past year: Covid-sceptics, who have managed to (twice) collect huge amounts of signatures in a very short period of time to challenge the government’s Covid law. How do they do it? Are they simply better organised than micro-tax advocates? Or is a global pandemic simply a better mobilising tool than a fiscal overhaul?

Keystone / Tomas Ovalle

Doggy bags: they might be coming to a Swiss restaurant near you.

Widespread in the US, and a legal right in France since this July, doggy bags are less popular here in Switzerland, reports BlickExternal link. Why? Firstly, to avoid waste, restaurants have tended to offer smaller portions rather than portable leftovers. Secondly, many people in Switzerland are uncomfortable about taking home what they can’t eat; like the aversion to telling others your salary, Blick writes – people don’t want to seem “stingy”. But things might be changing! Slowly but surely, at least in French-speaking Switzerland, more and more clients are asking to take home what defeated them. A victory against waste and prudishness? Perhaps, the newspaper says, but ultimately restaurants are responsible for “only” 14% of all waste; the biggest part comes from households themselves (38%). Maybe a tupperware revolution would be more useful than the doggy bags…