At the fourth national meeting on equal pay in the public sector, 34 semi-public companies sign up to the Charter launched three years earlier by Alain Berset. They employ nearly 180,000 people. The Confederation, 16 cantons and 86 cities and municipalities had already signed it. He recalls the year of women: the strike of 14 […]
In the general election of the Federal Council following the federal elections, the Federal Assembly re-elects Alain Berset for the 2019-2023 legislature, along with Ueli Maurer, Simonetta Sommaruga and Guy Parmelin. He begins his third legislature at the head of the Federal Department of Home Affairs. Sources SRF, 11.12.2019
The 21st forumsante.ch is devoted to the role of doctors in the face of digitalisation and an ageing population. Alain Berset opens by mocking his own title: “Bundesrat… Unverändert seit 1848. Durch und durch analog.” He links the two trends, digital and demographic, that are transforming the profession: more chronic illness, more coordination between professions, […]
For the 50th WEF, the whole Federal Council is in Davos. On 21 January, International Geneva day, Alain Berset opens the House of Switzerland lunch on the economics of global health: Geneva hosts some 176 permanent missions, 37 international organisations and 400 NGOs. He also opens a session on health data, “The Good, Bad and […]
The secret files scandal is thirty years old. Alain Berset opens the Solothurn Film Festival by playing on the word: why “Fichen” and not “Karteikarten”? “Immer, wenn es brenzlig wird, kommt das Französische zum Zug.” Then he speaks about surveillance in the digital age and the return of friend-enemy logic in public debate. A society, […]
Before the health insurers’ association, Alain Berset quotes alarmist headlines on the health system: a Tinguely machine, a Swissair before the grounding, “2 Minuten vor Zwölf”. Like a good Swiss, he agrees a little with all of them. He defends the cost-control packages, uniform financing of services and tariff partnership, and describes the deadlock as […]
Working visit to the Principality. On 12 February, Alain Berset is welcomed by the Minister for Social Affairs, Mauro Pedrazzini, and visits the company Oerlikon Balzers. He pays a courtesy call on Hereditary Prince Alois. On 13 February, he meets the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Justice and Culture, Katrin Eggenberger, visits the Institute of Architecture […]
At the National Library, which is celebrating its 125th anniversary, Alain Berset presents the Swiss Literature Awards. The Grand Award goes to Sibylle Berg for her body of work; the Special Award for Translation to Marion Graf. His speech addresses the diffuse unease at work in societies, and argues against the temptation of a new […]
First conference of the new Health2030 strategy. At Alain Berset’s invitation, nearly 250 health stakeholders meet in Berne to discuss the health of older people. Life expectancy has never been higher, but the system is not ready for patients living with several chronic, non-communicable or mental illnesses. He opens by proposing, laughing, to add the […]
Alain Berset meets the German Minister for Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth, Franziska Giffey. On the agenda: international cooperation for gender equality and the UN World Data Forum, planned in Switzerland in October, which puts the emphasis on sex-disaggregated statistics. In the evening, at the Berlinale, he attends the world premiere of “Schwesterlein” […]
The virus is spreading in Lombardy and Veneto. The Italian Minister of Health, Roberto Speranza, brings together his counterparts from neighbouring countries in Rome: Switzerland, France, Germany, Austria, Slovenia, Croatia and San Marino, with the European Commissioner Stella Kyriakides. The same day, Switzerland announces its first confirmed case. The ministers adopt a six-point joint declaration: […]
Extraordinary meeting of the Federal Council. It declares a “special situation” under the Epidemics Act and bans events of more than 1,000 people with immediate effect, at least until 15 March. It is the first major national measure against the virus. Sources Federal Council, press release of 28.02.2020
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