Voters endorse labour accord with EU

A key bilateral accord with the European Union on open labour markets has won a clear majority at the ballot box. Switzerland’s rightwing parties, which forced the nationwide vote, suffered a defeat on Sunday February 8, as nearly 60 per cent of voters backed the government and a broad alliance of parties, organisations and the [...]

Gas deal is burning issue

A controversial Swiss-Iranian gas deal is still causing a stir a few weeks after it was signed. The deal, worth up to €22 billion, is being criticised yet again, this time by the New York-based Anti-Defamation League. The Jewish association has posted ads in the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times as well as [...]

Carnival loses its glitter

Carnival has ended in most of Switzerland with the Mardi Gras festivities. But in one town, they hardly got off to a start this year. The authorities in Locarno, canton Ticino, called off the partying after a local student was savagely beaten by three other men. The young man was taken in a critical condition [...]

Big guns meet in Davos

If the world’s media are to be believed, the masters of the universe are meeting in the (ugly) Swiss resort of Davos for the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum. The usual suspects have turned up for drinks , a chinwag and perhaps the odd business deal. Given the cost of joining the [...]

Swiss government gets friendly

Internet users can get virtually, albeit unofficially, closer to Switzerland’s cabinet thanks to the social networking website Facebook. An economics student from Neuchâtel in the western part of the country set up the seven ministers’ profiles on the site, a move that has yet to draw a reaction from the government. Bertil Suter says that [...]

Blocher’s long march to the top stopped

The Swiss parliament has thrown a spanner in the works: by refusing to re-elect populist rightwing politician Christoph Blocher to the seven-member cabinet, the federal assembly has decided his brand of politics is no longer acceptable. Instead, a temporary alliance of Greens, Social Democrats and Christian Democrats, along with a support cast of [...]

Swiss witch could be rehabilitated

The last witch to be executed in Europe, Anna Göldi (or Göldin) could be rehabilitated. Members of canton Glarus‘ parliament have voted the measure despite the local government’s opposition to the move after lobbying by Swiss journalist Walter Hauser. Göldi was decapitated in 1782 after being sentenced for poisoning her employer’s child, although the heart [...]

Swiss elections: baring (nearly) all not enough…

The Swiss elections took place on Sunday with the “victory” of the rightwing People’s Party. There was unfortunately one group of candidates that failed to make an impact on voters even if their campaign was one of the most talked about in recent memory. Seven budding politicians (including Christian Democrat Mirjam Arnold – see above) [...]

Another day, another election in Switzerland

It looks like Switzerland’s electoral scene has undergone a slight change. Latest results from the federal elections – held once every four years – show that the rightwing People’s Party has reinforced its position as the country’s most influential party after running a controversial campaign, while the Greens have also posted gains. The centre-left [...]

Staid Swiss politics becomes a battlefield

Swiss politics is finally getting the attention of the world’s media. Police in the capital, Bern, clashed on Saturday with leftwing militants who tried to interrupt a planned election rally by the rightwing Swiss People’s Party. The widely condemned violence is just another sign of rising tensions ahead of parliamentary elections in two weeks time. [...]