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Swiss Chronicle

Swiss Chronicle 2003

March, 3rd: Switzerland's team Alinghi is the first European team to win the America's Cup
May, 18th: Referendum on a reorganisation of the Swiss Army. The political right opposing a reduction of the armed forces is defeated.
June, 1st: G8 - summit at Evian (French shore of Lake Geneva). Massive protests in Geneva.
Summer heat and dryness for several months all over central Europe that have not been seen for more than 50 years.
October, 19th: Elections to the federal parliament. The populist Swiss People's Party gains 12 seats on cost of the Christian Democratic Party and the Free Democratic Party. Many observers talk of a landslide turn to the right while they oversee that the left (Social Democratic Party and Greens) gain 8 seats as well.
December, 10th: Christoph Blocher, leader of the right-wing Swiss People's Party is elected federal councillor (member of Switzerland's government).

Swiss Chronicle 2004

January, 30th: Swiss tennis player Roger Federer wins the Australian Open and reaches number one ranking.
May, 13th: negotiations on a second packet of agreements between Switzerland and the European Union are successfully finished.
August, 28th: Death of Sigi Feigel, former chairman of Switzerland's Jews.
September, 26th: In a referendum, a paid maternity leave is accepted while two proposals for a facilitated naturalization of immigrants in the second and third generation are rejected.
November, 11th: In a referendum, a revised scheme to smoothe the differences between rich and poor cantons is accepted by a majority, only three rich cantons don't want to show more solidarity ...

Swiss Chronicle 2005

June, 6th: In a national referendum a clear majority of the Swiss electorate votes in favor of Switzerland joining the European Union's Schengen / Dublin agreement on abolition of person checks at state borders and better cooperation of police forces. A second referendum allowing homose×uals to register a partnership and thereby taking similar financial responsibility for each other than spouses is also accepted.
Saturday August, 20th to Monday August, 22th: The most heavy rainfalls for more than 100 years in Switzerland devastate large regions of the country. Five people are reported to have been killed, two are still missing. Material damages amount up to 2 billion Swiss Francs (1.3 billion $). Major roads and railroads crossing the alps (St. Gotthard, Lötschberg) have been cut for several days, but Southern Switzerland could always be reached over the San Bernardino route. The prealpine regions Entlebuch (west of Lucerne), Obwalden and Bernese Oberland are hit by landslides and rivers Schächen and Reuss floods the region around Altdorf (Uri) at the upper end of Lake Lucerne. The floods of Rivers Kleine Emme, Reuss, Aare and of many small brooks that have become huge rivers have carried away some roads and bridges and cause the lakes of Sarnen, Lucerne, Thun and Biel to reach their 100 year high level marks. Details and photographs
September, 25th: In a national referendum a clear majority of the Swiss electorate votes in favor of extending the agreement on facilitated access of European Union citizens to Switzerland's labour market (and vice versa) to the new eastern European EU members.
October, 30th: Bülach, a small town 23 km [14 miles] north of Zurich organized the first referendum worldwide where the electorate could use SMS [short text message service] functionality of their cellular phones to say YES or NO. About 12% of the active electorate voted by SMS, further 26% by internet services and the rest by traditional ballots (paper). The electronic voting procedure includes, of course, encryption and codes to make sure that nobody will be able to vote twice and that local authorities are still not able to find out who was voting in favour or against the government's proposals. National experts in information technology and political sciences supervised the tests and found no irregularities (except for wanted testcases showing that attempted fraud is sure to be detected by the procedures - even in case a person tries to vote both by SMS and by a traditional voting-paper).
November, 27th: Switzerland's electorate has clearly accepted a national initiative demanding for a 5 years moratorium on food produced in Switzerland using genetical engineering techniques.
In a second referendum concerns a small modification of the law on working conditions in commerce was accepted with a very slight majority of only 50.6% (20,000 votes). Shops in major railway stations and airports may now sell any products on Sundays.

Swiss Chronicle 2006

March, 31st: A number of former Swissair managers are formally accused of illegal transactions leading to the banruptcy of Swissair

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