The head of the Swiss Football League (SFL) wants harsher penalties for troublemakers at stadiums. However, he repeated the stance that collective punishment measures are counter-productive. “We want tougher sentences for those who clearly can’t change their behaviour. That’s where we need to intervene,” Claudius Schäfer told the Blick newspaper on...

Swiss Defence Minister Viola Amherd, who also holds the country’s rotating presidency, emphasised on Sunday the importance of the Strasbourg-based institution on its 75th birthday. Thanks to the Council of Europe, democracy, human rights and the rule of law were re-established in Europe 75 years ago, Amherd wrote on Sunday. The institution represents...

In official negotiations on relations between Switzerland and the European Union (EU), which are re-starting after years of deadlock, Bern can count on the backing of Italy, according to Viola Amherd. “I have been promised support,” Amherd told the SonntagsBlick newspaper following a meeting with Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni on Friday. “Italy...

Several hundred people gathered at the University of Lausanne (UNIL) on Saturday in support of students who have been demonstrating for the Palestinian cause. Since Thursday, a hall on campus has been occupied by students demanding a boycott of Israeli academic institutions and an immediate ceasefire in Gaza. They have been authorised to stay until...

Pope Francis has received Swiss Defence Minister Viola Amherd for a 25-minute audience at the Vatican. Amherd, who holds the rotating Swiss presidency this year, wrote on social media on Saturday that she had assured the pope that Switzerland supported the reconstruction of the Swiss Guard barracks and the recruitment of new Swiss Guards. The new barracks...

Swiss public broadcasters RTS and SRF are drastically reducing their communications via the social network X (formerly Twitter). French-language RTS said that since X was taken over by billionaire Elon Musk in 2022 it no longer corresponded to the company’s journalistic values. “Dialogue with our followers is no longer possible [on X], because they...