Switzerland Elects Youngest President In 84 Years; Ecumenical Confab Comes To Basel; New Citizenship Rules Take Effect; Cops Nab Scammers

News For 2 January 2018

The post of Swiss president, held for one year, has been taken up by Alain Berset of Fribourg as of January 1.  Mr. Berset, 45, is the youngest elected official to hold that post since Marcel Pilet-Golaz in 1934 and is a member of the Social Democrat party.  Each year, the seven member Federal Council, the highest executive political body of Switzerland rotates the position of president, with the prior year's Vice-President assuming the highest executive position.  

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Around 20'000 young adults from more than 45 countries came together on Thursday in Basel for the 40th annual European convention of the Ecumenical Community Taizé. The event lasted five days and featured prayer sessions and discussions about social topics. For New Year's, the Community celebrated a “Festival of Nations”. The visitors, between the ages of 18 and 35, were accommodated in host families and WGs (a Wohngemeinschaft is a living community, like an apartment or a house shared by 2 or more people, often students). The first Taizé convention was held in Paris in 1978. Basel is the second Swiss city to host the event, after Geneva ten years ago. The events are organized by an ecumenical monks’s association based in a French town called Taizé.

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Starting this new year, new citizenship rules will further restrict the process of becoming a Schweizerburger (That's Swiss citizen in German, and you should know what it means if you intend to become one!).  The new rules formalize the language requirement, setting a minimum proficiency level of A2 written, and B1 spoken language skills.  Individual cantons will be free to set the requirements even higher.  You must also have a "C" permit from 2018 on in order to apply.  In addition, if you have been the recipient of social welfare anytime in the past three years, you will be excluded from applying for citizenship, unless you've made arrangements to repay the benefits in full.  On the upside, one can apply after 10 years of residency, as opposed to the previous 12 year requirement.

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Five telephone scammers, pretending to be policemen, were arrested in Basel last week. They were apprehended as they were going to pick up money from their victims. The imposters are all men, two Turks and three Germans, between the ages of 31 and 48. A week before, the police had already arrested three suspects for the same scam. The perpetrators use a technique called spoofing to imitate phone numbers of real police stations, and tell their victims that their money and valuables are in jeopardy and should be handed over to the police for safekeeping.