In February around 60% of Graubünden voters rejected the bid to host the 2026 Winter Olympics in St Moritz and Davos(Keystone)The Olympic flame was extinguished in canton Graubünden before it was even lit. In February, a majority of voters rejected a proposal to host the Winter Games in 2026 – the s

(Keystone)Here are a few of the stories we will bring you during the week starting on March 20.(Kristian Kapp)Monday and TuesdayAs part of our #WeAreSwissAbroad series, we bring you a portrait of Nino Niederreiter, one of the best Swiss ice hockey players in North America’s top league, the NHL. A da

When sharing an office does not mean working together(‘Work’N’Share)Nearly half of the Swiss workforce should no longer be bound by location due to digital technology and the sharing economy. These trends have fueled a rise in co-working. I joined the bandwagon and here is why I ‘co-work’.As an Indi

Donald Trump’s Florida compound is also referred to as the “Winter White House”(Keystone)A controversial Swiss property developer is one of the newest members of US President Donald Trump’s exclusive Mar-a-Lago club. Urs Lederma is a self-made entrepreneur from a Zurich suburb known for helping a

Mar 17, 2017 - 09:16Glowing Alpine summits, steaming locomotives and gushing mountain streams dominated the tourist image of Switzerland at the tu of the 20th century. Young designers from the Be University of the Artsexteal link have given their own take on the works of painter and

Workers lay reinforcement steel in a tuel between Bellinzona and Lugano.(Keystone)From baker to banker, Swiss workers ea salaries that must be put into perspective.Like anywhere in the world, salaries in Switzerland vary depending on factors like education, experience and location. Each year, ca

Swiss politicians and investors are at loggerheads over govement plans to tighten the laws on non-EU citizens buying property. (SRF/swissinfo.chexteal link) Under the proposed reform of the ‘Lex Koller’ law, people living outside the European Union or the European Free Trade Association (EFTA) m

Swiss moing ritual: “Hmm, what language shall I speak today?” (7.19.2016)(Marina Lutz)It is not easy to sum up a country with four linguistic regions in a cartoon and ensure it makes sense to an inteational readership in ten languages. That was the task given to cartoonist Marina Lutz. Lutz join

The proportion of under-25s getting their licence in Geneva has fallen from 75% 15 years ago to 65%, according to mobility specialist Vincent Kaufma(Keystone)Geneva attracts global attention for its motor show currently underway, but fewer and fewer young adults in Geneva itself are showing an int

Residents walk through the destruction of the once rebel-held Salaheddine neighborhood in easte Aleppo, Syria, on January 20, 2017(Keystone)By delving into an ex-Gambian minister’s past, Swiss prosecutors have bucked a recent trend among some nations to undercut the work of the Inteational Crimi

As a child, Swiss-bo Silvia Spross dreamt about the United States. Today, she has realised that dream by living in Los Angeles. She makes a living from acting and other artistic endeavours. She tells swissinfo.ch why she left “the best country in the world”.swissinfo.ch: Why did you tu your back

The Museum für Gestaltung in Zurichexteal link, to commemorate the 100th aiversary of the Swiss tourism office, looks back at the iovative and colourful history of adverting Switzerland as a tourist destination with the exhibition “Take a Holiday!”. (SRF, swissinfo.ch)

Campaigners celebrate the rejection in 2016 of a controversial initiative to deport foreigners who commit certain crimes(Keystone)The more options people are given to participate politically, the happier they are, according to scientific research. So shouldn’t every country introduce Swiss-style dir

Mar 11, 2017 - 11:00Six years after the Fukushima disaster on March 11, 2011, 70% of the evacuated and forbidden areas have been freed up by Japanese authorities and the policy of retuing the population to those areas continues. Two Genevans, Matthieu Berthod and Jean-Patrick Di Silvest

Swiss designers are capturing the public imagination with futuristic concept cars, now on display at the Inteational Motor Show in Geneva. (Julie Hunt, swissinfo.chexteal link) This year’s show is expected to attract 700,000 visitors in ten days, making it the biggest crowd-pulling event in the

A nuTonomy self-driving vehicle pictured in Singapore in August 2016(Keystone)Self-driving cars seem poised to be one of the most talked-about trends at this year’s Geneva Inteational Motor Show. The Touring Club Suisse (TCS) motoring association says the boom in these vehicles is just around the coer, with several trials already underway in Switzerland.The 87th editionexteal link edition of the 10-day motor show, which opens its doors on Thursday, puts the main car market trends on display. In recent years, it has reflected growing public demand for SUVs and the emergence of electric vehicles. One of this year’s striking trends is the rapid evolution of self-driving transport.Self-driving vehicle tests are taking place all over the worldexteal link, and Switzerland has piloted several of its own.exteal link The latest, aounced Tuesday, involves a Federal Railways trial with two driverless shuttle buses in the city of Zug’s public transport system. Begiing this summer, tw

Moving abroad as an American is no reason to abstain from exercising your democratic rights at home, argues Alexandra Dufresne. In the following essay, she explains how to remain active.It is a strange time to be an American abroad. Perhaps you know the feeling. Before your first cup of coffee, you debate whether to check the news to see what happened while you were sleeping. You try to resist, as something about your news obsession feels voyeuristic, undignified. But you check anyway.You make rules with your friends about not discussing American politics at dier, or in front of the children. But someone always brings it up anyway - like sticking a finger in a wound - and when they do, you feel both sick and relieved.You feel overwhelmed and powerless. You are to between focusing on what is happening in America and retreating into the comfort of being far away. Yet you know in your gut that retreat is a privilege whose comfort is illusory. If you feel this way, what can you

Are you in control of your own health records?(AFP)Could 2017 be the year of blockchain, when the digital transaction system breaks free from computer geeks, bitcoin enthusiasts and academics to make an impact on ordinary households?Blockchain is e-banking on a vast scale, minus the bank and other middlemen who take charge fees for making payments. It’s a digital scorecard of payments, contracts, property ownership, health records – in fact any data of economic value. It promises to put individuals in control of their own personal information and keep it safe from exploitation or fraud.Here are five Swiss companies developing blockchain services that could have an impact on your daily lives sometime soon.Health recordsEveryone has medical records, and many people are adding personalised health information via wearables and apps that measure everything from your heart rate, blood sugar levels and how many steps you take each day. But how do you make this mountain of data work for you ra

You’re young (at heart), love your mobile phone and are often on the go, but you still want great background information, from Swiss politics to society, as well as quirky stories that make you smile? Welcome to “Nouvo in English”, swissinfo.ch’s first social media video service.Whether you’re up a mountain, on a bus or at home in bed, Nouvo’s short videos can be watched anywhere. On Facebookexteal link and Twitterexteal link, we bring you hard facts and tongue-in-cheek fun directly into your feed, every day. And the great thing is: if you’ve forgotten your earphones, you can watch Nouvo without sound and still get all of the information you need. If you’d rather browse Nouvo on our website, you can do that here as wellexteal link.“Nouvo in English” is part of a multilingual project of the Swiss Broadcasting Corporation. So we'll be bringing you stories from all coers of Switzerland as well!

Julius Baer believes Brexit will dent Britain's economic growth(Keystone)Julius Baer, Switzerland’s biggest standalone private bank, sees Brexit as an opportunity to acquire a rival in the UK, according to chief executive Boris Collardi.The bank, with a market value of CHF11.3 billion ($11.2 billion) and assets under management of CHF336 million, already has more than 200 staff in the UK. It was plaing to build a European hub there before the UK voted last year to quit the EU.“If a UK bank became a seller (of its private bank) at some stage and approached us, probably we would look at it, on the basis it would be a contrarian move at a moment when UK assets were cheap,” Collardi told the Financial Times.“And I’m sure that in five years’ time, everybody would say, maybe it was not such a bad transaction.” Sterling has fallen 13% against the Swiss franc since the June 23 vote to quit the EU.Julius Baer has a history of such deals, begiing with its 2005 acquisition of three private ba

The 47-member Human Rights Council meets three times a year in Geneva(swissinfo.ch)The first session of the United Nations’ Human Rights Council in 2017 is taking place against a particularly bleak backdrop, with rising populism in some of the world’s most established democracies."We are in a period of uncertainty and insecurity. We do not know where the world is going. Some players like China are becoming increasingly important. We have a new US administration. This session of the Human Rights Council may help us to better orient ourselves and see where the debate is headed," said Ambassador Valentin Zellweger, the human rights chief at the Swiss mission to the UN in Geneva.Defenders of civil liberties are particularly worried. "A pathogen of divisive populism has infected a portion of the world so swiftly, much of what we work for now seems threatened," Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, recently saidexteal link.Contentious remarks by Donald T

Switzerland hasn't hosted the Winter Olympics since 1948. All bids in the meantime have been scotched by either Swiss voters or the Swiss Olympic Committee (RDB) After Sion’s failed bid to host the Winter Olympic Games in 2006, the capital of canton Valais is trying again. Not everyone shares the Olympic dream, however. An environmentalist and tourism expert tells swissinfo.ch why he is not convinced. On Friday, officials launched their campaign, “Sion 2026 – the Games at the heart of Switzerland”. It would involve four cantons in weste Switzerland, and Sion as host city. Another bid, from canton Graubünden, also plans to share events among several cantons, including Thurgau, St Gallen and Schaffhausen. The national organising committee, Swiss Olympic, will decide between the two options in April, and the inteational selection process will conclude in June 2019. However, Christophe Clivaz, a Green Party politician from Valais and professor of sustainable tourism at the Universi

Neusoft wants to expand its presence in Europe with healthcare services (Keystone) Switzerland can expect to see a lot more companies coming over from China in the coming years, according to Liu Jiren, co-founder and chairman of leading Chinese software firm, Neusoft. Chinese companies made the headlines in Switzerland last year with several notable merger and acquisition (M&A) deals, including the record $43.3 billion takeover of Basel agrochemical giant Syngenta by the China National Chemical Corporation (ChemChina). Yet more are taking advantage of Switzerland’s political stability, technical know-how, strong financial system and low corporate tax rates to set up regional headquarters in the alpine nation. It also helps when diplomatic relations between the two countries are at a high point, as witnessed by the free trade agreement and visit earlier this week of Chinese President Xi JinPing. Speaking to swissinfo.ch at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Liu said Chinese comp

Jan 21, 2017 - 11:00Going to the movies is still a beloved pastime in Switzerland, which has more than 270 cinemas. A new book, “Rex, Roxy, Royal”, takes us inside a few of them.Sandra Walti, one of the book's publishers, has long worked behind the scenes at an independent cinema in the town of Aarau. The idea of creating a photo book featuring movie theatre interiors came to her over the years, while cleaning her cinema after a screening or creating the programme for the following month. The project finally came into being about a year ago, with her co-publisher Tina Schmid. Ten collaborators from across Switzerland scoured archives and conducted historic research for the book. Photographer Olivier Lang travelled throughout Switzerland and documented cinemas in big cities and small towns, from mini-to-multiplexes. The resulting book takes readers across the country and brings them closer to the history of the cinemas, at a time of declining ticket sales. The switch from analog to digi

Dec 24, 2016 - 11:00The city of Geneva is being shown off in a new contemporary light thanks to original art installations and projections alongside the traditional Christmas decorations. A Colombian jaguar and snake, flying saucers and a lighthouse are just a few of the illuminated themes which are drawing ‘oohs’ and ‘aahs’ from locals and visitors to the city. The third edition of the Geneva Lux light art festival, which runs until the end of January, features 17 light installations by Swiss and inteational artists dotted across the central Geneva area on both sides of the lake. The contemporary set pieces ado the city’s walls, rooftops, trees and bridges. Suspended in mid-air they illuminate the evenings of late-night Christmas shoppers or calmly bob up and down on the Rhône River that flows through the city centre. A video projection on the Four Seasons Hotel des Bergues by the lake was inspired by the painting the Miraculous Draft of Fishes by Konrad Witz, which is on view at

Switzerland's Ambassador to the US, Martin Dahinden, took a look at how Swiss chefs have influenced cuisine today, from introducing time-keeping to presidential menus. The results of his research appear in his book, "Schweizer Küchengeheimnisse: Gesichter und Geschichten hinter bekaten Gerichten" (Swiss Kitchen Secrets Faces and Stories Behind Famous Dishes).

Dec 25, 2016 - 11:00The inconspicuous St Aa’s chapel lies in the heart of Zurich. Every Sunday and on church holidays the bells are rung by hand - a tradition that is dying out.For 20 years Rudolf Brauchli has been sharing this duty with a colleague, working alteate weeks. The 60-year-old is the last bellringer in canton Zurich to ring bells by hand. The other churches have been using an electronic system for years. St Aa’s chapel is located on what was once the site of the Füssli bell foundry and belongs to the Protestant Society of Canton Zurich. It was built by the architects Bischoff and Weideli in 1910 and is now a listed building. The chapel was founded by Mathilde Escher, daughter of the co-founder of the Escher Wyss industrial company. swissinfo.ch was able accompany Rudolf Brauchli during a Sunday church service. To find out how the bells sound, click below.

Joe Jimenez is facing a battle to restore investor confidence in Novartis, after a series of setbacks which have sent shares in the Swiss pharma group down more than a quarter in the past year.

Weak sales of a new heart drug have combined with problems in its Alcon eyecare business, to create arguably the rockiest period for Mr Jimenez since the American took charge six years ago.

Legal risks have added to the gloom, as Novartis faces investigation for suspected marketing abuses in the US, South Korea and Turkey on top of recent cases in Japan and China.

All these problems have been simmering for months but are now coming to the boil as a succession of analysts cut growth forecasts for the group.

Mr Jimenez still has credit with investors for an overhaul in which Novartis has narrowed the sprawling range of businesses built by his predecessor, Daniel Vasella. He is likely to point to progress in cutting costs and restructuring Alcon when he aounces first-quarter results on Thursday.

However, the headline numbers are unlikely to part the clouds hanging over Novartis. Analysts expect sales and profits to be down as the eyecare business continues to drag on performance.

The mood was different a year ago, when the group was preparing to launch Entresto. Data showing that the drug cut deaths by a fifth in clinical trials fuelled confidence that it would be the new blockbuster Novartis needed to offset the imminent loss of patent protection on its best-selling Gleevec cancer drug.

Yet instead of the expected gush, sales of Entresto started at a trickle. The $5 million (CHF4.8 million) registered in the final quarter of 2015 was less than a tenth of analysts’ forecasts. They have described the launch as a “huge disappointment”.

Novartis declined to comment but analysts sympathetic to the group pointed out that Mr Jimenez always said it would take time for Entresto to gain momentum. There has, so far, been no retreat from his long-term target for peak aual sales of $5 billion from the drug. Others are no longer as confident. Citigroup last month slashed its sales forecast from $10 billion in 2025 to just $2 billion.

Tougher times ahead?

The worry for investors is that Entresto may be a harbinger of tougher times ahead in the US. Two hyped cholesterol-lowering drugs from Sanofi and Amgen have also been stuck in the slow lane since their launch last year.

This has added to evidence that US insurers and healthcare providers are becoming more aggressive in their bargaining with big pharma as structural changes in the health system increase incentives for cost savings.

Without a strong contribution from Entresto this year, Novartis has been left exposed to a decline at Alcon - a business acquired from Nestlé for $50 billion in a two-part transaction completed in 2010. A target was set for Alcon to retu to growth by the end of the year. However, Seamus Feandez, analyst at Leerink, says the business may be sold if the turound falters.

Further uncertainty comes from the investigations facing Novartis over suspected marketing abuses in the US, Turkey and South Korea. That is on top of a $25 million settlement paid to the US Securities and Exchange Commission last month for bribery in China and a suspension of its business in Japan for manipulating clinical trial data.

"Sham" doctors' meetings

The biggest peril is from a lawsuit being pursued by Preet Bharara, the US attoey-general for the southe district of New York. He has accused Novartis of fuelling kickbacks to prescribers through as many as 80,0000 “sham” educational meetings where doctors were wined and dined.

Mr Bharara secured a $390 million settlement from Novartis in a separate case last year, and Andrew Baum, analyst at Citigroup, says there is a “high probability” of another fine that could be similar in scale to the record $3 billion paid by GlaxoSmithKlinein 2012.

Like GSK, Novartis might also have to commit to marketing reforms that would make it harder to aggressively push Entresto. Mr Baum said this could “severely impact” on eaings.

In an attempt to clean up, Novartis has appointed a chief ethics officer.

For all the challenges, some analysts still see reasons for optimism. Another new product, Cosentyx for psoriasis, has started strongly with forecasts of $2.5 billion in aual sales by 2020.

Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2016

Financial Times

How do Swiss-based commodities giants Glencore or Vale operate in the field and what are the consequences of their work for those living there? A new documentary by respected Swiss director Daniel Schweizer takes a rare look behind the scenes of this industry.

“Today some of the biggest extraction and trading firms are based between Geneva, Zug and Lausae. Switzerland has a great responsibility accepting them here and monitoring them so little,” declared Schweizer at the world premiere of his new documentary Trading Paradise, shown at the Visions du Réel film festival in Nyon last weekend.

After skinheads and neo-Nazis, environmental damage and gold, Schweizer tackles another sensitive topic for Switzerland: commodity trading.

The filmmaker travels to mining operations run by Glencore in Peru (Antacappay) and Zambia (Mopani) and another belonging to Vale in Brazil (Carajàs). The first two result in rare footage inside the mines.

From snowy Lake Geneva, we move to the arid, brown rolling mountains of southe Peru with trucks thundering outside Glencore’s huge open air Antacappay mine.

The film cuts between officious security guards and locals who complain about the pollution of their rivers and land from mine waste water.

Interviews are interspersed with recent TV images from violent demonstrations against the mine in Espinar province, and a 2013 news report showing dead animals that farmers claim had ingested food or water contaminated with heavy metals coming from mining activities. However, these claims were recently rejected by a study commissioned by the Peruvian National Service of Agricultural Health.

“I believe as human beings we have the right to live healthily. But here the mining company treats us like animals,” says elderly farmer Melchora Surco Rimach, adding she has received death threats for being outspoken about pollution.

The film then moves to Zambia following a Swiss researcher from the Swiss NGO Bee Declaration who is gathering information on one of Africa’s largest copper mines – the Mopani Mine in the Mufulira region, bought by Glencore in 2000.

Locals there complain about air pollution, in particular a poisonous sulphuric acid wind named ‘Senta’, which they claim destroys harvests and damages health. The plant has emitted sulphur dioxide since its creation in the 1930s.

“People breathe in sulphurous emissions as if they were oxygen. This air is toxic. When Senta blows at night people suffocate and die in their sleep…They don’t want to pay attention to our situation,” says Maggret Chsanga Waya, who lives in Kankoyo in a small rundown shack opposite the huge industrial copper mine.

Glencore executives reject the charges, saying they have invested $550 million upgrading a system to capture 97% of sulphur dioxide emissions at the plant.

From his headquarters in Baar, canton Zug, Chief Executive Officer Ivan Glasenberg defends the company’s social and environmental record.

“We respect human rights in the countries where we operate totally,” Glasenberg declares. “We have our own principles to respect human rights in the countries where we operate and we do that, and we do more than that, as we take care of the families and the population in the area of the mines in which we operate, not just the people who work at the mines. On environmental standards we don’t just follow the country standards; we follow inteational standards.”

In the second half of the film, Schweizer travels to the Carajàs mine in northe Brazil, the largest iron ore mine in the world owned by the multinational Vale. Information there is harder to gather, however, as Vale, which has its administrative headquarters in St Prex in canton Vaud, refuses to talk to him or grant access to the Brazilian site.

Instead the filmmaker meets Xikrin Indians, who are unhappy about the expansion of the mine and threats to their way of life. They talk of how the firm has driven them from their ancestors’ lands. As they are interviewed in their traditional costume and make-up, the thud-thud-thud of heavy machinery can be heard beyond the thick forest.

From there we retu to Switzerland, described as an ideal location for the multinationals as it provides access to commercial banks, fiscal privileges and a light regulatory touch.

In Lausae, the camera moves back and forth between traders sipping champagne at the 2014 Financial Times Global Commodities Summit inside the five-star Beau Rivage hotel in Lausae and protesters outside who are stopped in their tracks by police officers and pepper spray.

In March 2013, the Swiss govement published a controversial report on the commodities market. It recognised the importance and risks, but stopped short of drafting separate legislation for the sector, preferring voluntary non-binding regulations.

Schweizer follows a delegation of eight Swiss parliamentarians who visit Espinar in Peru in 2014, which resembles more of a tourist trip than an official mission. One MP criticises the intimidation by Glencore, but others praise the mining industry’s achievements or urge the firm to be more transparent.

While calls for change are coming from all sides, Stéphane Graber, secretary general of the Swiss Trading & Shipping Association argues that actually much is already being done: “The sector has developed massively. But it has also developed a lot with regard to social responsibility, risk management and due diligence.”

But activists say the efforts are not enough and more pressure is needed from civil society to make firms live up to the corporate social responsibility claims found in their brochures and that the situation on the ground is improved.

Changes could be afoot. The 140,000 signatures for a people's initiative dubbed “For Responsible Business”, directly aimed against the Swiss-based commodities sector as well as other multinationals, will reportedly be handed in at the Federal Chancellery in October. This could force a nationwide vote - but not before 2018.

Schweizer says Trading Paradise, which is set to get a nationwide release later this autumn, is his personal contribution to this ‘big political debate [on commodities trading] still to come”.

Commodities trading

In the space of only a few years Switzerland has tued into a major commodities trading hub. The small alpine state is home to about 500 companies specialising in this field, including giants such as Glencore, Vale, Cargill, Vitol and Trafigura.

The firms, which are mostly based in Geneva, Zug and Lausae, employ about 10,000 people and contribute nearly 4% of the country's GDP. Approximately a quarter of all raw materials are traded through Switzerland, including 35% of crude oil, 60% of metals, 35% of grain, and 50% of coffee.

Firms’ reactions to Trading Paradise

Glencore: “As part of our stakeholder engagement, we welcomed the opportunity to take part in the making of the film. We look forward to continuing to work with the producers to address certain inaccuracies before the film’s general release in the autumn.”

Vale: “Vale will be happy to share with you its view on the documentary, but only once it will be released in autumn, as no-one at Vale has seen it so far.”

swissinfo.ch

An old German law has allowed for a talk show host to be prosecuted for making fun of Turkey’s president. An infringement on free speech? Some say so, but it’s not a one-off, since neighbouring Switzerland also has a similar statute on the books that’s been put to use.

It all began when satirist Jan Böhmerma told a joke about Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on his television show. It contained sexual references – involving a goat, in the form of a poem – and Erdogan was offended. So much so that he called on the German govement to prosecute the talk show host.

In many countries, things would have ended there, with a complaint from abroad having no traction in sovereign politics or laws protecting free speech taking precedent. But not so in Germany, thanks to Paragraph 103 of the penal code, which prohibits insulting the leader of a foreign country – as long as the German head of state allows for the law’s application.

And perhaps not so in Switzerland, which has a similar law – Article 296 – saying essentially the same thing.

“Whoever insults a foreign head of state, a member of their govement or diplomatic representation…shall be punished by imprisonment of up to three years or a fine,” reads the Swiss law. The legislation also specifically forbids insults against delegates attending a diplomatic event and official representatives at NGO meetings held in Switzerland. Also, like in Germany, the head of govement – in this case the seven-member cabinet – must approve applying the law. That means it’s always political.

While Germany’s version of the legislation came into force in 1871, Switzerland’s became the law of the land in 1951.

From Gaddafi to the Shah

When has Switzerland applied its law on insulting foreign heads of state? The last instance was not so long ago, in 2010, when a Geneva political group put up posters depicting Moammar Gaddafi with the tagline “He Wants to Destroy Switzerland” – a statement the Libyan leader had once made before the United Nations.

Gaddafi called on the Swiss govement to act, arguing that the poster was insulting. The govement did so, allowing a judicial investigation to go forward based on the terms of Article 296. But the federal prosecutor’s office aounced it was dropping the case in August 2011, a few months before Gaddafi was killed.

And in the 1970s, Iran’s shah was displeased with his depiction in a Swiss satirical magazine and also called on Switzerland’s govement to green-light an investigation. It did, again based on Article 296, and the magazine’s publisher was fined – albeit only a few hundred Swiss francs.

Switzerland has also made use of Germany’s law on insulting foreign heads of state. In 2007, a Swiss citizen living in southe Germany published abusive accusations about former Swiss cabinet member Micheline Calmy-Rey on the inteet. Based on the Germany’s Paragraph 103, Switzerland called on the German govement to open an investigation, and the person who had published the Idea was fined.

A tightrope walk

Late last week, German Chancellor Angela Merkel aounced she would let the case against Böhmerma go to the courts for judges to decide which laws apply. By doing so, she attempted to appease both Erdogan – whose support she’s counting on in resolving the refugee crisis – and the loud voices of criticism and calls for repeal of Paragraph 103 coming from within her own country. Merkel also made statements supporting the law’s repeal.

In Switzerland, politicians from both sides of the political spectrum called for the repeal of Article 256 in the wake of the Böhmerma affair, including former parliamentarian Oscar Freysinger of the conservative right Swiss People’s Party and former cabinet minister Jean-Christophe Schwaab of the leftwing Social Democrats.

“The fact that you can be prosecuted for insulting a foreign head of state here in Switzerland reminds me of the Middle Ages,” Schwaab told the 20 Minutes newspaper.

Satirists Mike Müller and Viktor Giacobbo, who host a show on Swiss public television, SRF, also made insulting remarks about Erdogan on their programme, most recently on Sunday.

Even though a lawyer confirmed that they could be prosecuted under Article 256 for those remarks – if Erdogan calls for it and if the govement approves – Müller said the comedy duo had not been discouraged by the network (part of swissinfo.ch’s parent company) from making jokes about the Turkish leader.

“We have free reign over our show,” he said.

Reactions varied

Among members of the public, feelings on Böhmerma’s fate were varied, with some arguing his actions should be defended and others saying he overstepped boundaries.

One Twitter user remarked that “Böhmerma is lucky he lives in Germany and not Switzerland”, citing the Swiss law’s text.

Others supported Böhmerma’s right to free speech and thanked his broadcaster, ZDF, for standing behind him in the affair.

Another commenter tweeted from Switzerland that “I’m not a Merkel supporter, but why do people think that Böhmerma can’t be accused of defamation, just like anyone else could?

And in an editorial on Sunday, the Swiss Neue Zürcher Zeitung newspaper said the affair had “uecessarily plunged Merkel into a difficult dilemma” and that she had handled the situation in a pragmatic way.

As for Böhmerma, he shouldn’t be punished, said the paper – “but he could take some time to consider the purpose of satire”.

You can contact the author of this article on Twitter.

swissinfo.ch