Switzerland Today

Hello from Bern,

Where one year on from the start of the Russia-Ukraine conflict, debates about how much Switzerland is helping, and how much it isn’t, are ongoing. But first, the other news of the day.

© Keystone / Peter Klaunzer

In the news: hotels bouncing back, online gambling, and printed bones.

• Swiss hotels welcomed almost as many guests in 2022 as before the pandemic, according to stats released today. Compared with 2021, the number of total overnight stays rose by 29% to 38.2 million. The resurgence was driven by domestic tourism and travellers from Europe and America. Covid restrictions in China and Japan meant numbers from those countries remained low.
• Four years after the introduction of a new gambling law in Switzerland, anti-addiction groups say problematic online gambling has increased. In 2018, 25% of 1,395 people polled said they gambled online weekly; by 2021, this had risen to 30%, according to a survey published today. People aged 18 to 29 are most affected: around 19% show signs of risky behaviour.
• Researchers at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne (EPFL) have developed a bio-composite that they hope can help mend works of art and coral reefs as well as bones. Their new 3D-printable ink contains a bacterium that produces calcium carbonate on contact with a solution containing urea. Within about four days, any shape from the 3D printer mineralises into a bone-like material.

© Keystone / Peter Klaunzer

Russia-Ukraine: one year on, searching for something positive to say.

Almost exactly a year after Russian attacked Ukraine, Swiss media is chock full of analysis and comment, some of it still very polarised: the right-leaning Weltwoche, in its editorial today, compares the Western “holy dogma” of anti-Russian sentiment to the moralistic frenzy of the Crusades; the left-leaning WOZ, which also appears conveniently on a Thursday, complains that Switzerland is more focussed on money than morals.

There’s also plenty of debate about how much Switzerland has been doing to help, and how much it hasn’t. On Tuesday, a parliamentary committee came up with a complicated plan of how Switzerland could adapt its weapons laws to get arms to Ukraine; on Wednesday, the government reiterated its stance – no interest. The government did announce CHF114 million in new aid for Kyiv; but an analysis this week showed that rich Switzerland still comes very, very far down on the generosity list.

More optimistically, a survey was published today by the Swiss Refugee Council (SRC), based on feedback from 1,073 Swiss families hosting fleeing Ukrainians. Such efforts by private citizens has been by and large a success, the survey finds. In most cases, co-living works “well or very well”; in over 70% of cases, it has lasted over three months. Currently 35% of Ukrainian refugees (25,000 people) are staying with Swiss families.

The SRC says the privately-driven (albeit with some public financial input) efforts have helped to ease the pressure on the struggling federal asylum centres. It’s also a way to help the refugees get settled and integrated in an alien society. It’s the first time in recent history that private accommodation has played a key role in the state’s asylum policy, the SRC writes. It hopes it won’t be the last, and that refugees arriving from other regions, and not just Ukraine, will be met with such support in future, and that refugees can live “at the centre of society”.

Keystone / Patrick Pleul

Swiss train stations: watching over your best interests.

The Swiss Federal Railways is under fire, and not for its punctuality: it wants to install face-recognition cameras in 57 stations around the country, a consumer magazine revealed last week. Predictably, many people found this a bit worrying. Today the Railways came out in defence: data protection is not in danger! The cameras won’t recognise concrete individuals, it says, just features like gender, age or size. The aim is to be able to better plan where take-away stands or restaurants are located, and to track crowd movements and security. Consumer protection groups are not convinced.