Switzerland Today

Dear Swiss Abroad,

Has the Swiss population cracked the nine-million mark? How many people moved to – and turned their back on – Switzerland last year? The stats are out.

As even the smallest accumulations of water are enough for the Asian tiger mosquito to breed, watering cans, flowerpot saucers, vases and other containers should be emptied regularly KEYSTONE/© KEYSTONE / ENNIO LEANZA

In the news: Tiger mosquitos in the Zurich Oberland, an organisation promoting news literacy, the latest Swiss population stats, and a ship found at the bottom of Lake Maggiore.

The tiger mosquito has arrived in the Zurich Oberland: the town of Uster says the first specimens were identified last summer. The mosquito population is now being combated and the area monitored. Tiger mosquitoes can transmit various diseases such as dengue fever, although the risk of this in Switzerland is low.

An organisation called Use The News is being set up in Switzerland to promote news literacy.  In times of increasing disinformation, Use The News aims to support people in using the media to form their own opinions. The organisation is being supported by the Swiss News Agency Keystone-SDA, the Swiss Broadcasting Corporation (SWI swissinfo.ch’s parent company) and the Swiss Media Association, as well as Stiftung Mercator, a foundation which funds projects including in areas such as science, children, and the environment.

Switzerland’s population grew last year at its fastest rate in 60 years, pushed by record immigration including thousands of people from war-torn Ukraine. The permanent population rose by 145,400 to more than 8,960,800 by the end of 2023, an increase of 1.6%, preliminary figures from the Federal Statistical Office showed yesterday.

Wreck hunters have found the remains of a passenger ship that sank almost a hundred years ago off Brissago in canton Ticino. The Mercedes lay at a depth of 270 metres.

Mikhail Shishkin has lived in Switzerland since 1994 SWI

Russian writer Mikhail Shishkin, who has lived in Switzerland since 1994, is our guest in On the Record.

In an in-depth interview, Shishkin talks about how to defend Russian culture, how he witnessed Switzerland welcome dirty money with open arms and whether Russia and Ukraine will ever be able to reconcile.

“The Russian language has been stained in blood,” he says. But he is not volunteering to write a novel of redemption. That task, he argues, is best left to a Russian soldier who has witnessed the worst of the war in Ukraine and must come to terms with what he saw – and did.

JK Rowling has called the law “ludicrous” KEYSTONE

A new law against hate speech came into force in Scotland on Monday, praised by some but criticised by others – including the Neue Zürcher Zeitung (NZZ) today – who say its sweeping provisions could criminalise religious views or tasteless jokes.

“The Scottish law follows a dangerous trend in the Western world of restricting free speech by legalising the protective interests of individual social groups. This curtails the freedom of all, creates insecurity and a climate of denunciation,” the NZZ wrote in an editorialExternal link. “It gives state actors additional means of power, perhaps with well-meaning intentions, but without any guarantee that these will not be insidiously misused to control the population.”

The Hate Crime and Public Order (Scotland) Act makes it an offence to stir up hatred with threatening or abusive behaviour on the basis of characteristics including age, disability, religion, sexual orientation and transgender identity. Racial hatred was already banned under a law dating from 1986. The maximum sentence is seven years in prison. Scotland has a separate legal system from England and Wales.

Scottish Minister for Victims and Community Safety Siobhian Brown said the new law would help build “safer communities that live free from hatred and prejudice”. Critics argue that the law will have a chilling effect on free speech, making people afraid to express their views. The legislation was passed by the Scottish Parliament almost three years ago but has been delayed by wrangling over its implementation. Harry Potter author JK Rowling, who has called the law “ludicrous”, is among critics who say it could be used to silence what are known as “gender-critical” feminists, who argue that rights for trans women should not come at the expense of those who are born biologically female.

The NZZ said the Western world “must be careful not to abolish the foundations of its own success”. “Free speech was an achievement of the Enlightenment, and this was the foundation of the unrivalled economic growth and prosperity that the West has created over the past two-and-a-half centuries. The progressive juridification of more and more claims and interests of individual population groups restricts the freedoms of other groups. It empowers the state and shifts productive resources and energies into bureaucratic procedures,” the paper said. “This is an aberration that ultimately harms everyone.”

Healthcare costs: should hospitals have to be economical? KEYSTONE/Gian Ehrenzeller

Healthcare costs: should Swiss hospitals clamp down on expenses? Join the discussion.

Many Swiss hospitals are making considerable losses, require millions in government aid and have to cut services.  Read up on the topic and have your say on the multilingual debate platform “dialogue”.