After the flurry of travel and guests the last couple of months, Melissa and I have cherished these last two weekends of doing absolutely nothing!  We’ve spent the last two weeks just living the everyday Swiss life, so I thought I should share some of the recent interesting news stories that all the everyday Swiss people are talking about.

Gotthard Base Tunnel:

On June 1st Switzerland opened the Gotthard Base Tunnel, the worlds longest, (at 35.5 miles), and deepest, (at 1.4 miles maximum), rail tunnel.  That famous Swiss precision meant that it was finished on time and on budget, taking 17 years and 12.5 billion dollars to construct.  The tunnel will create a high-traffic route into Italy and its Mediterranean ports, boosting commercial transit through Switzerland.

Link to a BBC article on the tunnel

Swiss Reject Basic Income:

The Swiss system of democracy is a little different than the U.S.A’s in that any Swiss citizen can write a law.  These laws are called popular initiatives, and require 100,000 petition signatures for a national vote to be enacted.  On June 5th a popular initiative that would have created a basic income system was defeated at the ballot box (76.9% against to 23.1% for).

A basic income is a welfare system where every citizen, employed and unemployed, would receive a cash payment from the government each month.  In Switzerland it was proposed that every adult would receive about $2000 per month and every child would receive about $600 per month.  That sounds a little steep, but keep in mind that Switzerland is home to some of the highest cost of living cities in the world. This was Switzerland’s second try at a basic income, the other time being in 2014.  Despite the failed efforts, so far Switzerland is the only country in the world to even consider a basic income on the national level.

Link to Swissinfo article about the vote

Strikes in France

Just across the lake our neighboring country, France, has been dealing with national labor issues.  France’s government is trying to roll back labor laws to combat high unemployment, such as a 35 hour work week, and severance pay.  Since the end of May, and continuing to the present, many unions, including rail workers, refinery workers, pilots, and power plant workers have been striking the reforms.  I know the French worker regulations sound a little plush to an American, but the way the laws are being enacted (without a full vote), seems to have caused a lot of raucous too.

Link to Guardian article explaining the French strikes

European Soccer Championship

Yesterday marked the beginning of the 2016 UEFA European Championship, a soccer tournament that only comes every four years and is second only to the FIFA World Cup in importance. The championship pits the top 24 European national teams against each other to determine the best European team. All the games are played in France, this year’s host country.

While Europeans rarely display any nationalism, the tournament brings out everyone’s national pride. Our diverse neighborhood, typically devoid even of Swiss flags, is now draped in banners for France, Italy, Turkey, Albania, Portugal, and of course Switzerland. The tournament kicked of Friday night with a match between France and Romania, and our neighbors alerted Melissa and I to every goal and whistle with shouts, horns, and fire crackers.  Since that game on Friday, the air has been constantly filled with noise during game times.  There’s usually a few games played per day (though that will drop down later) and the tournament lasts for another 2 weeks, so we’ll have to get used to the noisy celebration. We’re actually looking forward to the Switzerland-France match that will take place next Sunday, which I’m sure will liven up our town.

Link to the tournament website