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.
 
Fans of Gothic architecture got a treat on Tuesday when the fully restored vaulting of the central nave of Bern Cathedral was revealed (pictured). Experts had spent four years extensively cleaning it. The first service without scaffolding will take place at the end of February.
 
Parliamentarians were busy this week. We look at their biggest decisions, including the federal budget for next year and a five-year ban on Palestinian militant group Hamas. There’s also the eagerly awaited court decision on whether to repeat a nationwide vote originally held in 2022, and Google’s annual list of the most searched people, terms and questions in Switzerland over the past 12 months.
 
Finally, what’s your family coat of arms? What, you haven’t got one? We explain why most Swiss families do.

The big stories of the week

Maja Riniker, president of the House of Representatives, gets business underway on Monday. Keystone / Peter Schneider

Parliamentarians have been voting on a range of issues, including the federal budget, a ban on Hamas, and the introduction of e-signatures for popular initiatives and referendums.

On Monday the Senate approved the federal budget for 2025 by 42 votes to 0 with one abstention. The Swiss army will receive an additional CHF530 million ($600 million) in 2025, and no cuts will be made to direct payments for agriculture. Foreign aid remains a sticking point, however. Last week the House of Representatives wanted cuts of CHF250 million, the Senate came back with CHF30 million, and on Wednesday the House proposed CHF170 million. On Thursday the Senate raised its offer to CHF71 million. Will they agree?  The debate continues on Monday.

On Wednesday parliament voted overwhelmingly to impose a five-year ban in Switzerland on Palestinian militant group Hamas, thus accepting a government proposal drawn up after Hamas’s terrorist attacks on Israel on October 7, 2023. The government will now decide on the exact date of the ban. The House of Representatives had also planned to discuss a ban on Lebanese political party and paramilitary group Hezbollah, but there wasn’t enough time.

Separately, the State Secretariat for Migration (SEM) tweeted on Monday that asylum procedures and decisions for asylum-seekers from Syria would be suspended with immediate effect until the situation there could be reassessed. About 500 Syrians in Switzerland are thought to be affected.

Of interest to the Swiss Abroad, on Wednesday the Senate approved a motion calling for the collection and verification of signatures for popular initiatives and referendums to be digitalised for security and efficiency reasons. In September it was revealed that commercial companies were suspected of falsifying signatures. The House of Representatives still has to vote on this.

• Live ticker on winter parliamentary sessionExternal link (SRF, German)
• What does banning Hamas mean for neutral Switzerland? (SWI)
• Swiss Abroad furious about missing voting documents (SWI)

Keystone / Peter Klaunzer

The Swiss National Bank (SNB) cut its interest rate by 50 points on Thursday, the biggest reduction in almost ten years, as it sought to stay ahead of expected cuts by other central banks and cap the rise of the Swiss franc.

The SNB reduced its interest rate from 1% to 0.5%, the lowest since November 2022. While markets had predicted the move, most economists had expected a smaller cut of 25 points. As my colleague Matthew Allen explained in May, predicting the direction of interest rates is made more difficult by different countries facing unique inflationary pressures. 

The Tages-Anzeiger newspaper looked at the consequences of Thursday’s decision for tenants, mortgage borrowers, home buyers and savers. In a nutshell, it’s good news for some, less good news for others.

• National bank cuts key interest rate significantly to 0.5%External link (SRF, German)
• Are rents and mortgages now going to fall?External link (Tages-Anzeiger, German, paywall)

Keystone / Gaetan Bally

The Swiss will not have to vote again on raising the retirement age for women. On Thursday the Federal Court unanimously rejected appeals calling for the annulment of the vote in September 2022.

The Green Party, the women’s section of the Social Democratic Party and several private individuals had complained that voters had been presented with the incorrect financial outlook ahead of a vote on pension reform. This included raising the retirement age for women from 64 to 65. In August the Federal Social Insurance Office admitted that pension forecasts had been based on incorrect calculation formulas. The vote was close: only 50.5% of voters backed the reforms.

The panel of judges, which comprised three men and two women, agreed that the consequences of cancelling the vote would hardly be manageable.

“We’re bitter about the lack of courage shown by the judges,” said Lisa Mazzone, president of the Green Party, in front of the court after the verdict. “While two of the judges found the errors in the information provided by the Federal Council to be serious, this error is being trivialised because it concerns women. This is unacceptable.”

• News report from Swiss public broadcaster, RTSExternal link (French)
• Fiasco for democracy? Switzerland miscalculates by billions (SWI)

Xherdan Shaqiri announced his retirement from international football in July, but he still plays for FC Basel. Keystone / Peter Klaunzer

“Why isn’t Shaqiri playing?” “What is non-binary?” “Why is it raining so much?” These were some of the most asked questions in Switzerland last year, according to Google.

On Tuesday the search engine published its annual review for 2024, in which Euro 2024 and the Eurovision Song Contest were two of the highest trending search terms (Switzerland made the quarter-finals in the former and went all the way, with non-binary Nemo, in the latter).

The death of former One Direction member Liam Payne, Spain’s young football star Lamine Yamal, and Donald Trump being re-elected US president were also of particular interest to Swiss googlers.

• See what happened in SwitzerlandExternal link (Google)
• “Why isn’t Shaqiri playing?”External link (NZZ, German)

Quirky Switzerland

In Zurich, the coats of arms of eight families adorn the windows of the guild house “zur Waag”, now a restaurant. Keystone / Alessandro della Bella

What’s your family coat of arms? If you’re not Swiss, the chances are you haven’t got one; if you are Swiss, the chances are you do.

My colleague Olivier Pauchard – who does have a family coat of arms – explains in this article how heraldry went from being a means of identifying armoured knights in the Middle Ages to a fashionable fad in the 20^th century.

Photo of the week

Keystone / Alessandro Della Valle

Finance Minister Karin Keller-Sutter meets her “goddog” Zeus (left) and his daughter Lio on Wednesday after her election to the rotating Swiss presidency for 2025 by the Federal Assembly. (Keystone/Alessandro della Valle)

The week ahead

Keystone / Georgios Kefalas

Eurovision fans will get the first glimpse on Monday of the visual appearance, stage design and soundscape of the Eurovision Song Contest 2025, which will be held in Basel in May.

Corks will be popping in the northeastern Swiss city of Wil, canton St Gallen, on Thursday, to celebrate Finance Minister Karin Keller-Sutter being formally elected president for 2025. But what do Swiss presidents actually do?

Edited by Samuel Jaberg/ac