Economist.com Cities Guide: Zurich Briefing - June 2006

News this month

Political suicide?

The Swiss government has rejected calls for tighter regulation of assisted suicide. Switzerland bans euthanasia, in which someone mercifully administers a lethal substance to a terminally ill patient, but since 1942 has allowed assisted suicide, which is committed by the patient but facilitated by someone else. Prompted by a sharp rise in voluntary deaths among both Swiss citizens and “death tourists”, the Swiss parliament asked the justice ministry to re-examine the law. But at the end of May Christoph Blocher, the justice minister, announced that existing rules were sufficient, though he urged prosecutors to strictly enforce them. Mr Blocher explained that while the government may tighten access to drugs, it would be difficult to create new controls. Each case is unique, he argued, so it is better to defer to the guidelines of the Swiss Academy of Medical Sciences than to rules set by a politician. Mr Blocher also resisted calls to scrutinise groups that facilitate suicides. To do so, he said, would add bureaucracy without necessarily preventing abuses.

This response did not satisfy the Swiss parliament. Three of Switzerland’s four main parties are keen to reduce the number of assisted suicides, particularly those of foreigners. Leaders of the centre-right Radical Party plan to revisit the issue this summer. New statistics have riled politicians: Exit, a Zurich-based organisation, helped 162 people to die in 2005, compared with an average of about 30 a year in the early 1990s. Politicians are concerned that Switzerland’s assisted-suicide policy will damage the country’s reputation abroad.

The foreign vote

Zurich’s cantonal government wants to give limited voting rights to foreigners living in the region. On June 1st the canton’s six executive members urged the cantonal parliament to amend the law to allow foreigners in the city's districts, towns and villages to vote at the local level. The cantonal government has suggested that eligible foreigners should have lived in Switzerland for at least ten years, with “a considerable amount” of that time spent in Zurich itself. The government pointed out that foreigners have already been given the right to vote on local matters in several European countries, including the Netherlands, Sweden, Denmark, Britain, Portugal and Spain. The practice has also been adopted in other (mainly French-speaking) Swiss cantons, including Geneva.

The proposal has upset the right-wing Swiss People’s Party (SVP), which forms the biggest single block in the cantonal parliament. Should the idea win majority support in parliament, the SVP’s leaders have said they will try to overturn the measure in a referendum. Among the party’s more creative arguments is the concern that allowing non-Swiss to vote would discriminate against those foreigners who have earned the right to vote though naturalisation.

Dealing with addiction

Switzerland’s controversial drug-abuse policies have been effective, according to a new study. Two professors from Zurich University found that the number of new users plummeted after the introduction of Zurich’s “four pillar” programme in 1991. The programme has four tenets: prevention, repression, damage limitation and therapy. Daringly, its techniques include handing out methadone and, in some cases, heroin to addicts, prompting critics to argue that the state is promoting drug abuse. In fact, the opposite is true, argue Carlos Nordt, a sociologist, and Rudolf Stohler, a psychiatrist, in their study published in the June 3rd issue of the Lancet, a medical journal. The number of new heroin users in Zurich fell from a high of about 850 people in 1990 to 150 in 2002.

By contrast, the authors point to stubbornly high figures for new users in countries with more repressive programmes. Messrs Nordt and Stohler concluded that the “four pillar” programme’s greatest success has been in portraying heroin abuse as a medical problem that needs treatment, thus dissuading people from becoming addicted to the drug.

Lift rift

Zurich officials are sceptical about an ambitious (some would say ludicrous) plan to build the world’s deepest train station and longest lift, and connect both to the world’s longest train tunnel. The tunnel itself is a well established project: the 57km-long, SFr15 billion ($12 billion) Gotthard Base tunnel, planned by the national railway and due to be completed in 2015, will help cut rail travel time between Zurich and Milan from four hours to about two and a half. The lift and station, however, are more controversial. First proposed by two entrepreneurs, the so-called Porta Alpina project would allow train passengers to disembark at a station within the tunnel, then take an 800-metre ride to the holiday resort town of Sedrun. The station and lift, its supporters claim, could help revive canton Graubünden’s struggling Surselva mountain region.

The scheme has not impressed Zurich’s politicians. A June statement from Zurich’s cantonal government said that Porta Alpina would defeat the purpose of the speedy Gotthard Base tunnel by forcing trains to stop. The cantonal government also doubted the project’s financial viability, and suggested that its SFr50m price tag could be better spent on “urgently needed” schemes to reduce traffic in Swiss cities. Nevertheless, Zurich’s government will not actively challenge the project, which has already raised about half of its budget: in February voters in Graubünden chose to grant a SFr20m regional credit for the project, and last December the Swiss federal government approved a SFr7.5m initial payment.

Who's afraid of the big bad wolf?

Stories of gamekeepers and big bad wolves are usually confined to fairy tales. But reports of a menacing wolf made headlines in Zurich in early June. A married couple walking in the popular Pfannenstiel (panhandle) countryside, just north of Lake Zurich, was the first to see what they insisted was a wolf, baring its teeth at them. Officials took the couple’s story seriously—the husband is also a biologist specialising in wild animals—and alerted the canton’s gamekeeper, Hans Augsburger.

Upon initial investigation, Mr Augsburger found paw prints that could belong to a either a dog or a wolf. Mr Augsburger said that the animal’s reportedly aggressive behaviour suggests that of a female wolf defending her young, in which case she may be dangerous to humans. Wolves are protected animals in Switzerland and can only be shot when they pose a safety risk. If the sightings are confirmed, Mr Augsburger said that the wolf would be closely monitored.

Catch if you can

June 2006

Fabergé in Zurich – Treasures of Imperial Russia

Part One, until July 30th 2006; Part Two, August 2nd-September 10th 2006

In 1885 Alexander III, tsar of Russia, asked Peter Carl Fabergé to make an egg for his wife as an Easter gift. The result was dazzling: a white enamel shell enclosed a “yolk” of a gold hen with ruby eyes, a tiny imperial crown and ruby eggs. Fabergé went on to create 56 more eggs for the Russian tsars. Sadly many were lost in the Russian revolution or later sold off by Stalin. Fabergé himself fled the Bolsheviks in 1918 and died near Lausanne in 1920.

This summer Zurich’s Bellevue Museum offers a rare chance to see some of these “Imperial” eggs, among other treasures from the master jeweller. This two-part exhibit features nine Imperial eggs alongside six other Fabergé eggs until July 30th, and then Fabergé’s objets d’art from August 2nd to September 10th. The Imperial eggs belong to Viktor Vekselberg, a Russian oil magnate who bought them from New York’s Forbes family in 2004. Witness the so-called Hen egg, as well as the Fifteenth Anniversary egg, created in 1911 to mark the 15th year of Nicholas II’s rule. The objets d’art hint at just how prolific Fabergé and his craftsmen were. The Fabergé workshop served clients throughout Europe, producing everything from cigarette boxes and paper knives to chess sets. This exhibit comes to Zurich as part of celebrations to mark 100 years of diplomatic ties between Switzerland and Russia.

Museum Bellerive, Höschgasse 3, 8008 Zurich. Tram 2 or 4 to the Höschgasse stop. Tel: +41 (0) 43 446 4469. Open: Tues-Sun 10am-5pm (Thurs until 8pm). Admission: SFr17 (concessions SFr14). For more details see the exhibit’s website.

More from the Zurich cultural calendar