Villagers of Brienz/Brinzauls are facing an imminent rockslide

2023-05-02

Swiss direct democracy is famous worldwide, but some parts of the population are still excluded from votes and elections, like children for example.

To include young people in politics, some cities have set up a children’s parliament, where kids aged 8 to 14 take part in regular sessions, approve budgets and so on.

We talked to Lorena, Mattis and Enno, three of 90 youngsters taking part in the annual children’s parliament in Lucerne in central Switzerland. In this short video the children describe their extraordinary activities.

Lorena and Mattis, aged 11 and 13 respectively, are members of the co-presidency of the parliament and chair the sessions, which take place three times a year on Wednesday afternoons. Ten-year old Enno meanwhile already has a clear plan for his political

2023-04-26

Swiss star architect Peter Zumthor has just turned 80. One of his architectural highlights is the Thermal Baths in Vals. Built from local quartz, the spa brings together the "champagne" of Swiss mineral waters with the mineral stone from which it gushes. Zumthor used about 40,000 stone tiles and piled them on top of one another to form walls around a labyrinth of chambers of varying sizes, much like the inner spaces of a temple devoted to the senses.

The spa was declared a historic landmark only two years after it opened, and people have been flocking to it ever since to marvel at the architecture and relax in its curative waters.

SWI swissinfo.ch journalists Dale Bechtel and Michele Andina visited Vals in 2004 where they spoke to Annalisa Zumthor-Cuorad, the wife of the architect

2023-02-11

Around 3,500 public sector workers in the western Swiss canton of Vaud took part in a strike on Thursday. They are calling for wage indexation to keep up with inflation and rising living costs.

2023-02-08

Swiss International Air Lines (SWISS) says it will resume passenger flights to the Chinese city of Shanghai early next month following an easing of travel restrictions.

2023-02-07

With its second federal constitution of 1874, Switzerland was suddenly catapulted to the forefront of democracy development worldwide. No canton had voted so strongly in favour of radical change as Schaffhausen.

Adopting the new federal constitution marked a milestone in Swiss history. It brought about several important improvements, making up for just about everything the original constitution lacked.

Many of these improvements would not have happened without what became known as the Democratic Movement. This movement had arisen in several parts of Switzerland in response to controversial decisions taken by cantonal parliaments, such as Basel Country and Basel City moving towards reunification and building railroads through farm land in Bern.

This episode is part of the series Swiss

2023-02-05

Swiss journalists could in future receive leaked bank data without fear of criminal prosecution if a parliamentary motion is incorporated in banking secrecy legislation.

2023-01-27

Last year Swiss watch exports surpassed CHF24 billion ($26 billion) for the first time. The positive trend is expected to continue into 2023. Journalist and deputy head of the swissinfo.ch editorial group for German, French and Italian. Earlier, worked for Teletext and Switzerland’s French-language national broadcaster.

2023-01-17

Food companies making big profits as inflation has surged should face windfall taxes to help cut global inequality, anti-poverty group Oxfam said on Monday as the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum (WEF) gets underway in the Swiss mountain resort of Davos.