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THE WEEK IN SWITZERLAND

Five big news stories from Switzerland you need to know about this week

Access to citizenship, as well as Zug's housing woes are among the Swiss news The Local reported this week. You can catch up on everything in this weekly roundup.

Published: 1 March 2024 16:25 CET

Five big news stories from Switzerland you need to know about this week

Trains along the Lake Geneva route are often late. Photo: Pixabay

EU vs. third countries: Who has faster track to Swiss citizenship?

In Switzerland, not all foreigners are considered “equal” in terms of residency and work permits.

But when it comes to naturalisation, they all have the same access to the Swiss passport — though, depending on their nationalities, some have to wait for it longer than others.

READ ALSO: Is it easier for EU citizens to get Swiss citizenship?

Switzerland’s hospitals are well ranked

Several Swiss hospitals — including the ones in Zurich, Basel, Geneva, Basel, and Lausanne — got high scores in the ranking of healthcare facilities around the world.

This confirms that Switzerland has top-notch health system in international comparison.

READ ALSO: Where are the ‘best’ hospitals in Switzerland in 2024?

MPs to help foreign victims of abuse to remain in Switzerland

Many foreign women who are victims of domestic violence don’t report these offences to the police for the fear of being deported.

To remedy this situation, both chambers of Switzerland’s parliament are seeking a new law to prevent these victims, who are abused by their partners, from losing their residency rights.

READ ALSO: Foreign women to be better protected against domestic violence

A rail tunnel will be built along Lake Geneva

The train line between Lausanne and Geneva, which is an important part of Switzerland’s rail network, has been experiencing many disruptions.

Swiss MPs have therefore green-lighted the construction of a 9-kilometre-long railway tunnel between two Vaud towns “to increase capacity [on the line] and give more flexibility to operations.”

READ ALSO: Why Switzerland is set to build a rail tunnel along Lake Geneva

Zug suffers from Switzerland’s worst housing shortage

Finding an affordable place to live in the tiny Swiss canton is nearly impossible, with the number of reasonably priced rental options becoming scarcer each year.

Official statistics indicate that “nowhere else in Switzerland is the housing shortage as acute as in Zug”.

This is due mostly to the scarcity of building land in and around the canton’s 11 municipalities

READ ALSO: Why does Zug have Switzerland’s ‘most acute’ housing shortage?

Also:

Would you like to know what new events are happening in Switzerland in March?

This article provides all the answers:

READ ALSO: Everything that changes in Switzerland in March 2024

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Six big news stories from Switzerland you need to know about this week

Swiss citizens can’t reunite with their third-country parents

The Council of States has rejected a bill which focused on whether naturalised or dual Swiss citizens could bring their foreign relatives from third countries to live in Switzerland.

The goal of the project aimed to eliminate the discrimination suffered by the Swiss citizens compared to their EU/EFTA counterparts regarding the admission of foreign members of their family from third countries within the framework of family reunification.

However, MPs rejected the move on the grounds that the number of additional people who would arrive in Switzerland under this measure could not be estimated, nor could the costs that this measure would generate for the country’s social security scheme.

READ ALSO: Switzerland rejects move to ease family reunification rules for naturalised Swiss citizens

Switzerland to scrap some benefits from next year’s budget

The country’s deficit — estimated at about 3 billion francs a year — prompted the government to find ways to reduce the budget by at least 3 billion francs by 2027 and by at least 4 billion by 2030.

To achieve this goal, the government-appointed panel of experts presented over 60 measures that could considerably curb government spending.

Among the proposals put forth is to end federal subsidies for childcare, abolish tax incentives for capital withdrawals under the second and third pillar-pensions, and reduce the financing of the railway and road infrastructure.

READ ALSO: Three budget cuts Switzerland wants to make that will impact you

The amount of rent increase landlords are entitled to after renovations is set

Switzerland’s federal court has ruled that investments resulting in an increased value of rented properties can be remunerated at the same rate as the one defined for calculating the permissible net return.

This means that for an average tenant, this would be a return that exceeds the reference interest rate by 2 percent — as long as the reference interest rate is below 2 percent.

So if we take the current rate of 1.75 percent, the post-renovation rent could go up by 3.75 percent.

READ ALSO: Top Swiss court rules how much landlords can hike rent by after renovations

SWISS airline and Zurich airport slammed for flight delays and cancellations

A new analysis by the passenger rights portal Flightright raised doubts about the reliability of the two flagships of Swiss aviation — despite their reputation for punctuality and reliability,

The portal compared the 20 European airlines with the most departures between June 20th and September 4th of this year, finding that Switzerland recorded both the most cancellations (2.5 percent) and the most delays (39 percent).

Furthermore, 43 percent of SWISS flights arrived more than 15 minutes late — the third-worst result of the 20 airlines examined.

READ ALSO: Why has Switzerland become so bad for flight delays and cancellations?

MPs say foreigners use health system more than the Swiss

The National Council has voted in favour of a motion that would allow patients’ nationality to be collected, so authorities can examine the benefits of health insurance.

“For reasons of transparency, the nationality of insured persons must be considered as a variable to be analysed to examine the benefits payable by health insurance,” said deputy Cyril Aellenfrom the Radical Liberal party, one of the move’s instigators.

The objective of this push is to find out if foreign residents cost the obligatory health insurance scheme more than the Swiss, although it is not clear at this point what purpose would this information ultimately serve.

READ ALSO: Switzerland to seek data on how foreigners use health services

Foreign residents targeted by hateful mail

Our most read story of the week in Switzerland was a pretty disturbing one.

It was about an anti-foreigner flyer that was sent to the homes and perhaps workplaces of a number of international residents in Switzerland (and even Swiss citizens with foreign names) telling them they should leave and that they have “turned the country into a shit hole”.

Written in English, the text reads in part: “Foreigners, you are illegal…in 2014, the Swiss voted in a referendum to stop mass immigration from the EU, but are being unconstitutionally ignored by the government because of pressure from employers and economy lobbyists!”

It also says: “You’ve turned our beautiful country into a foreigner-infested, over-populated, over-priced and culturally-estranged shit hole.”

It’s not clear who is responsible for the leaflet.

READ ALSO: ‘You’ve made Switzerland a sh*thole’: Foreign residents targeted by xenophobic leaflet

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