Economist.com Cities Guide: Zurich Briefing - June 2005

News this month

Swiss edge towards EU

Swiss voters have endorsed plans to join the European Union’s Schengen passport-free travel zone by a 55%-45% majority. In a nationwide referendum on June 5th, the notoriously Eurosceptic Swiss also voted to join the Dublin agreement on handling asylum-seekers. But a further referendum on September 25th could nullify the decision unless voters agree to open Switzerland’s domestic labour markets to workers from ten new EU member states.

In Zurich, opponents of the accords erected an eight-metre Trojan Horse near a major road and protestors jumped out dressed as Osama bin Laden and Mohammed Atta. But most voters warmed to the optimistic message of the accord’s proponents, who promised that easing visa restrictions would boost tourism, among other things.

Gay marriage

Zurich is no longer Switzerland’s only canton to allow gay marriages. In another nationwide referendum on June 5th, 58% of Swiss voters agreed to allow civil unions between homosexuals. Although married gay couples will still be forbidden to adopt children or receive fertility treatments, they will be able to obtain residence permits, widow’s pensions and favourable inheritance-tax rates. Like married couples whose incomes are combined, civil-union couples may face higher taxes and, in the event of break-ups, will have to deal with the equivalent of divorce and alimony.

The referendum appears to signal a surprising level of progressiveness in this supposedly old-fashioned nation. But word is that many “yes” voters, particularly in less urban areas, agreed mainly because of the ban on adoption.

No more home lunches

Zurchers have approved a new law to keep state-educated children at school all day. Many Swiss cantons send schoolchildren home at noon, although some provide the option of school-based block schedules and lunch programmes. The new law will help working women in Zurich, since variable school hours have been cited as a reason why mothers in Switzerland still struggle to find careers.

Fiery Zurich: 25 years on

It has been 25 years since the Opera House protests, a rare outbreak of civil unrest and youthful violence in the typically quiet city. On May 30th 1980, a group of young people gathered outside the city’s Opera House to protest against its SFr62m ($49m) restoration grant. The demonstrators complained that public funds were only reinforcing elitist institutions, and neglecting the cultural needs of the young. The city ultimately gave the protesters a youth centre, but unrest continued, particularly after police found a cache of drugs and weapons in the centre. In 1982, protestors set their clubrooms on fire, prompting the city to tear down parts of the building and precipitating one last wave of protest. Some 120 policemen were injured as they arrested 3,800 people.

Anyone who feels nostalgia for Zurich's brief flurry of excitement has been keeping mum. No public ceremonies have marked the anniversary, and the restored Opera House has emerged scar-free. Perhaps the only evidence that the outbreak took place is an old documentary, “Züri brännt” (“Zurich is Burning”), which was recently re-released on DVD.

Ursine invasion

Some 630 life-size plastic bears are filling Zurich’s city centre. They are the latest in a parade of zoological sculptures that began with plastic lions in 1986 and resumed with plastic cows in 1998. But today’s bears have a cuddly humour the lions and cows lacked. Some are Teddy Bears; some are made of real chocolate or liquorice; some are out in public in their underwear or lederhosen. Whatever tourists may think, locals have their doubts about the ursine invasion. Demonstrators draped black rubbish bags over a few bears’ heads, protesting that the bear programme treats citizens like children.

Catch if you can

July 2005

Lang Lang at the Zurich Festival

June 16th-July 10th 2005

The ninth annual Zurcher Festspiele (Zurich Festival) fills the Swiss summer with ballet, opera, plays and concerts. Among this year’s highlights will be a concert by Lang Lang, a Chinese pianist (June 26th at the Tonhalle), and a performance of the Bruckner Cycle (all ten Bruckner symphonies, from June 17th to July 10th, also at the Tonhalle).

Mr Lang is a prodigiously talented 22-year-old who cemented his reputation four years ago by standing in for André Watts with the Chicago Symphony at Chicago’s Ravinia Festival. Having earned a standing ovation for his concert in Zurich last February, he returns with a programme of Schubert and Mozart, accompanied by the Zurich Opera House Orchestra.

The Bruckner Cycle will be performed by four orchestras: the Tonhalle-Orchestra Zurich, the Zurich Opera House Orchestra, the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig and the Orchestre des Champs-Elysées.

For details on all events visit the festival's website. See Mr Lang's website.

More from the Zurich cultural calendar