Switzerland

Marco Chiesa, president of the right-wing Swiss People’s Party, will not stand for re-election at the end of his term of office in March 2024.

“I had a mission. And it has been fulfilled,” said the Ticino native, who was elected party president in 2020.

The People’s Party’s selection committee had already begun its work, Chiesa, 49, said in an interview with CH Media and Corriere del Ticino on Thursday. He was convinced that the time was right for him to step down as party president. “The aim of my term in office was to win the elections and strengthen the politics and values of the People’s Party.” He had succeeded in doing so, he said. ...

The mountain railways in San Bernardino in southeastern Switzerland are back in operation after ten years of standstill.

The re-opening of the ski resort on Wednesday is part of Ticino investor Stefano Artioli’s plan to breathe new life into the ailing holiday resort with investments totalling CHF300 million ($360 million).

The mountain railways and ski lifts in the winter sports resort at the south portal of the San Bernardino tunnel have been out of service since 2012, with the exception of a few beginner lifts in the village. There was no money for the necessary refurbishment. As Artioli’s company San Bernardino Swiss Alps announced on Wednesday, it acquired the lifts last summer and renovated them. ...

Despite inflation, consumers in Switzerland spent more money on Christmas presents in 2023 than in previous years. Cashless payments reached a record level in the run-up to Christmas.

Rising prices did not have a negative impact on this year’s Christmas business. On the contrary: from December 1 to 24, Swiss retailers earned more from cashless payments than ever before, according to an analysis by the news agency AWP based on data from Monitoring Consumption Switzerland going back to 2019. ...

The Swiss government intends to submit proposals to parliament in the spring to ensure that a Credit Suisse-style bank bailout will no longer be necessary in future.

“We must act – we have no other choice,” said Finance Minister Karin Keller-Sutter in an interview with the Neue Zürcher Zeitung (NZZ) newspaper on Wednesday.

“We must ensure that a major bank can go under without, in the worst case, dragging an entire country into the abyss,” she continued. She will endeavour to ensure that “all the unpleasant questions are really discussed now”. This has nothing to do with hostility towards systemically important banks, but with “our responsibility for the Swiss economy”.

Swiss bank UBS has cut a particularly large number of jobs among global banks in 2023. This was calculated by the Financial Times.

The takeover of Credit Suisse by UBS has led to a reduction of at least 13,000 jobs at the combined bank, the British business newspaper wrote on Tuesday. And further major rounds of redundancies are expected in the coming year. ...

The youth section of the Swiss Social Democrats (JUSO) say they have collected enough signatures for the “Initiative for a Future”.

This calls for an inheritance tax of 50% from a tax-free amount of CHF50 million ($58.5 million) in favour of an ecological restructuring of the economy.

The Swiss electorate will be able to vote on socially fair financing of climate protection, according to a JUSO press release on Wednesday. The party plans to submit its initiative at the beginning of February. It says it has already collected over 130,000 signatures. ...

Most of the confiscated counterfeit Swiss watches come from China and Hong Kong. This year there have also been new payoffs targeting counterfeit Swiss watches in Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Egypt.

The fight against counterfeit watches is one of the main concerns of the Federation of the Swiss Watch Industry. More than half of the seizures still involve counterfeits from China and Hong Kong. However, this year saw the first results in other important countries: 150,000 watches were confiscated in Saudi Arabia, 62,000 in Turkey and 25,000 in Egypt. ...

The weather, which was far too mild for the time of year, continued on Christmas day.

In Bern, 13.5°C (56.3°F) were measured on Monday - a record. It has never been this warm in the federal city on Christmas day since measurements began in 1864.

In municipality of Bern-Belpmoos, the weather service Meteonews reported that the temperature reached 15°C at 4:10pm in the afternoon. ...

The crises in 2023 mobilised the willingness to donate in Switzerland despite the increasing pressure on purchasing power. However, this was at the expense of other donation needs.

One example of this was the Telethon Foundation, which is dedicated to supporting people with rare genetic diseases. It recorded a 30% drop in donations in 2022 and fears that this trend will continue in 2023 due to the crises, as it announced at the beginning of December. ...

Around 30 people evacuated after the recent landslide in the town of Schwanden in canton Glarus will probably not be able to return to their homes until the end of the year.

It is not yet known exactly when they will be able to return, Chief of Staff Hanspeter Speich told SRF. "We are currently looking into emergency access to the two buildings," Speich continued on Sunday. In the afternoon, the authorities would receive information on how long it would take to implement emergency access. ...

The Federal Intelligence Service has no indications of concrete plans for terrorist attacks in Switzerland.

However, the FIS still considers the threat of terrorism in Switzerland to be heightened, as it announced in response to an enquiry from the Keystone-SDA news agency.

Against the backdrop of possible attack plans, the German authorities have stepped up security measures around Cologne Cathedral. Tighter security measures are also in place in Vienna on Christmas Eve. ...

Hundreds of medicines are either unavailable or difficult to obtain in Switzerland. For around 200 of these medications, the shortage poses a serious problem.

Following the shortage of these medicines last winter, the situation is also critical for common products.

The list of missing products and substances compiled by specialised websites is long. Whether on drugshortage.ch, the platform for drug shortages of the Geneva University Hospital (HUG), the online pharmacy Zur Rose or the list of the Federal Office for National Economic Supply (FONES) - the situation is very tense. ...

Five people refused to leave the landslide area in Schwanden, canton Glarus, on Saturday.

They defied the evacuation order issued by the authorities. The possibility of the situation in the landslide area worsening has not been ruled out.

According to a statement issued by the municipality of Glarus-Süd on Saturday evening, the overall situation in the Wagenrunse landslide area remained unchanged despite the rain subsiding during the day. The extent of the damage in the village has increased. ...

Despite a turbulent year, the Swiss Red Cross (SRC) has met its budget targets for 2023.

For the current year, the SRC is expecting donations of around CHF45 million ($52.48 million), as SRC President Thomas Zeltner said in an interview. ...

The strike by employees of the ground handling company Dnata caused delays to the first flights at Geneva Airport early on Sunday morning. Dnata is involved in 85 flights on Sunday, as Geneva Airport announced on request.

A spokesperson for the airport told the Keystone-SDA news agency in response to an enquiry.

Three flights were delayed. Two intercontinental flights to Geneva may have to be diverted to other airports, the airport spokesperson wrote in a statement.

The airport is expecting 52,000 passengers for Sunday. They should expect some inconvenience, it said. ...

Large globally active companies will be taxed at a rate of at least 15% in Switzerland in the future. The Swiss government decided on Friday to introduce part of the OECD/G20 tax reform as planned on January 1, 2024.

The rapid implementation will prevent tax revenue from flowing abroad, the Federal Department of Finance (FDF) wrote in a press release.

The minimum taxation will be implemented in Switzerland with an amendment to the ordinance, which provides for the levying of a new supplementary tax in Switzerland. This required an amendment to the constitution. The people and cantons clearly approved this last June in a nationwide vote. After six years, the government must submit a federal law to Parliament. ...

The companies in the Swiss Market Index (SMI) emit an average of 21 million tonnes of CO2 per year. There are huge differences between companies though, as an analysis by the news agency AWP shows.

With 130 million tonnes of CO2, the construction group Holcim is the largest emitter of greenhouse gases in Switzerland's most important share index. The technology group ABB is close behind with around 127 million tonnes. The food company Nestlé is also one of the biggest CO2 emitters with 113 million tonnes. Data from the previous year was taken into account. ...

Air traffic at Zurich Airport has put the coronavirus pandemic behind it, even at Christmas time. With almost 90,000 passengers, the volume on Friday exceeded records before the pandemic.

Slightly fewer than 90,000 travelers passed through Zurich Airport on Friday, a spokesperson for Zurich Airport told the Keystone-SDA news agency. Although the airport doesn’t give an exact figure, they confirmed this is higher than in 2019, when around 85,000 passengers flew in and out of Zurich. ...

The Swiss franc has jumped to its highest level against the dollar since 2015, when Switzerland’s central bank abandoned its policy to contain currency strength.

The currency reached CHF0.8551 per dollar on Friday, its strongest level in almost nine years. Versus the euro, the franc rose as high as CHF0.94112.

The franc is outperforming all its G10 currency peers this year, bolstered by the view that the Swiss National Bank’s (SNB) preference for a stronger domestic currency will keep it afloat. ...

Intense rainfall has triggered new landslides in the central Swiss village of Schwanden, raising fears of another evacuation for residents

On Friday morning, several hundred cubic meters of mud reached a residential area in canton Glarus that has only been habitable again for a few weeks.

The approximately 30 residents are not allowed to leave their houses for the time being, as the Glarus Süd community wrote on Friday afternoon. A new evacuation is being considered. Last week, 64 people were evacuated from the same area due to the impact of last summer's devastating landslides. ...

The German company Global Logistics Support (GLS) has obtained a super-provisional order from an Italian court to release 25 Swiss tanks stored in Italy.

The Swiss company that has possession of them, Ruag, is now examining legal options in this context.

According to Ruag, the decision to release the Leopard 1 main battle tanks was made in a unilateral process. It is only provisional and does not yet have legal force, Ruag said in a statement on Friday. It may not be enforced until the objection period has expired. ...

Switzerland’s CHF5.3 billion hardship payments saved up to 35,000 companies from collapse during the Covid-19 pandemic and resultant lockdowns.

The Federal Audit Office drew a largely positive conclusion of the funds but found some inefficiencies.

Some of the hardship measures were too high or unnecessary compared to the need, the audit found. In addition, there was unequal treatment between industries and between companies within an industry. ...

Swiss diplomat Pierre Krähenbühl has been named as the next Director General of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). The Genevan will replace Robert Mardini from the beginning of April next year.

The ICRC Assembly has appointed Krähenbühl, as the organisation announced on its website on Friday. The 57-year-old political scientist has been working in the humanitarian sector for 30 years, including 25 years at the ICRC. ...

No quiet room is to be set up in the parliament building in Bern where politicians can retreat and pray during sessions

On Friday, the House of Representatives voted against a motion by former Ticino parliamentarian Rocco Cattaneo by 128 votes to 38, with 27 abstentions. Cattaneo had justified his motion by saying that the hectic pace during the sessions had increased significantly due to extraordinary events. This is now off the table. ...

A Swiss banker has pleaded guilty to tax offences in the United States. Between 2008 and 2014, he allegedly helped wealthy US clients hide their assets from the US authorities in accounts at Zurich-based Ihag Privatbank.

The former head of the Zurich-based Allied Finance Trust, a subsidiary of the Liechtenstein-based Allied Finance Group, and his “co-conspirators” transferred more than $60 million (CHF51.4 million) from US taxpayers to undeclared Ihag bank accounts, according to a statement issued by the US Department of Justice on Thursday.

The Swiss national was arrested in Italy in August 2023 and extradited to the United States. According to the press release, he now faces up to five years in prison as well as fines and claims for restitution. ...