Author: switzerlandtimes.ch

On 10 November 2022, Switzerland and the UK, two nations outside the EU, signed an agreement deepening the relationship between the two nations’ research and innovation communities. The agreement was signed by UK Minister of State for Science, Research and Innovation, George Freeman MP, alongside Federal Councillor Parmelin, Head of Switzerland’s Federal Department of Economic Affairs, Education and Research, at a ceremony in London. According to the UK government, the two nations together have 10 or Europe’s top 20 research universities. In addition, Switzerland has a number of world class research laboratories and companies such as Roche and Novartis, and…

On 18 June 2023, citizens of Geneva voted on whether to boost the rate of wealth tax applied to assets above CHF 3 million over the next decade – an extra CHF 44 to 49 per 1,000 would be levied on wealth above CHF 3 million for 10 years. 55.12% of voters rejected the idea. Only the four communes of Geneva (51.65% yes), Carouge (51.56%), Vernier (52.37%) and Avully (52.46%) had majorities in favour of the plan. The other 41 communes voted against it. The idea dates from the pandemic when government budgets were stretched and the canton was struggling…

At 37% of the total, one-person households are now the most common way to live in Switzerland, according to recently published data by Switzerland’s Federal Statistical Office (FSO). The data from 2022, show that 37% of households contained one person, followed by the 32% that contained two, 13% that contained three, 12% with four and 5% with five or more. This does of course not mean that 37% of the population lived alone. Households of five or more members might have make up a relatively small proportion of total households (5%), but they contain five or more individuals living with…

Switzerland’s Gotthard tunnel is a key link between northern and southern Switzerland. During the summer holiday season it becomes a major traffic choke point. On Sunday 16 July 2023, traffic queues north of the tunnel stretched as far as 15 kilometres, according to SRF. The waiting time to get to the tunnel was as long as two and a half hours according to the TCS traffic service. Queues and waiting times were not as long on the southern side. There, the queue reached 5 kilometres with waiting times as long as 50 minutes. The Gotthard Road Tunnel runs between Göschenen…

Home rent could rise 15% in Switzerland by 2026, according to Martin Tschirren, the head of Switzerland’s federal housing office, reported RTS this week. Tschirren thinks the rental reference rate could rise again over the coming year or two – the rental reference rate is an officially computed figure that reflects average mortgage rates. It is used to set rent levels in many rental contracts in Switzerland. It is reviewed quarterly and the latest rate was announced on 1 September 2023, when it was left unchanged at 1.5%. If the rental reference rate rises 0.25 percentage points it lifts rent…

A popular initiative has been launched in Switzerland to vote on partially nationalising the UBS Group. For a popular initiative to reach the voting stage 100,000 signatures need to be collected within 18 months. The banks initiative aims to change the Swiss constitution to require large banks and insurance companies of systemic importance to be managed as joint stock companies with the federal government as majority shareholder, a set up described as a mixed-economy stock corporation. UBS Group would fall into this category. Switzerland has long been home to a banking sector with assets far larger than its economy. UBS’s…

Here is a list online museums and a concert below for everyone in lock down. Enjoy! ONLINE MUSEUMS: Pinacoteca di Brera – Milano Galleria degli Uffizi – Firenze Musei Vaticani – Roma Museo Archeologico – Athens Prado – Madrid Louvre – Paris British Museum – London Metropolitan Museum – New York Hermitage – Saint Petersburg […]

By Peter Hulm Remembering a Glarus native who bubbled with new ideas his whole life. Deputy editor of Global Geneve Magazine Peter Hulm reports. Ninety years ago, on 16 February 1933, Fritz Zwicky posited the existence of dark matter. It then took three decades for cosmologists to accept his ideas (three years after his death), and he ended his life excluded from the U.S. research telescopes where he spent most of his career, though he “discovered more supernovae than everyone else in human history combined” at the time (until 2009): 122. The American Museum of Natural History (AMNH) website says: “If a competition…

A report published this week by the Aarau Center for Democracy shows how far Switzerland leads the world on voting. Since 1848, Swiss voters have been asked to decide on 689 federal referenda and elections, a multiple of the number in any other nation. If cantonal and municipal votes are added the number of decisions presented to voters the total is probably ten times this number. Since 1900, 622 federal referenda have been held in Switzerland. The nations with the next highest numbers are New Zealand (117), Liechtenstein (115), Northern Mariana Islands (110), Italy (81) and Ecuador (70). The topics…

The sound of cow bells is an integral feature of Switzerland’s image, conjuring up idilic alpine scenes of cows roaming freely, chomping on grass. However, these same clanging bells can be less than idilic when you’re trying to sleep. In the small Bernese town of Aarwangen several poorly rested newcomers have complained. Town locals, shocked at what they view as an attack on their culture, are fighting back, reported SRF. The bells are essentially a sonar location device typically used in summer to find cows roaming freely at higher altitudes where they can get hidden in valleys and wooded areas.…