Football Hooligans Trounce Train Time-Table; When is Swiss Beer, Swiss?; City Owes citizens 130million Francs; Basel Seeks New Speed Cameras

News on 14 April 2015

In case you've missed the talk of the town, the football match last Sunday night between home team FC Basel and their guests, FC Zurich resulted in massive post-game hooliganism.  The game was part of the Swiss Super League match ups, and resulted in a lop sided 5-1 win for Basel.  Enraged Zurich supporters began their mischief by throwing fireworks onto the pitch forcing referees to halt the match during the second half for ten minutes.  As usual, the authorities made arrangements to corral Zurich supporters out of the stadium and onto a special train after the game without having a chance to mingle with the locals.  Their rage, however, was not sufficiently vented, and once aboard their home-bound train, the emergency brake was activated in the vicinity of Pratteln station at approximately 7:15pm.  Zurich supporters subsequently spilled out onto the tracks causing delays for at least nine regional and inter-city trains, including those bound for the Zurich Airport.  Before police could respond, The fans proceeded to vandalize train cars and smash any shop windows in their path before being returned to their train by the police and sent on their way.

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The question of which foods and drinks can be labelled "swiss" was spelled out in a set of rules published by the swiss federal department of agriculture and was set to take effect in 2017.  however, after review of the draft legislation, some food and beverage producers, especially brewers, cried foul.  The problem is that the legislation as it stands requires 80% of the ingredients to be swiss sourced in order for the food to be legally labelled swiss - however, water, apparently does not count as an ingredient for the purposes of this calculation.  Hence swiss brewers, who might use all Swiss mountain sourced water but foreign grains and hops would be afoul of the law if they labelled their resulting beverage Swiss. Luckily, the agriculture department has responded with amendments to the planned legislation to allow water as an ingredient in calculations when it is a main ingredient, as it is with beer.  As April 24th is set to be the annual swiss beer day, along with its attendant celebrations and drinking of swiss beers, the rule changes are a welcome relief for the swiss producers that would have otherwise been unable to call their beer "swiss".

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Despite Basel's pristine reputation for financial stewardship it also apparently is the subject of legal claims for damages in excess of 130 million francs.  56 creditors representing private individuals and institutions are actively in the process of pursuing these claims.  Former SVP Grand Council and Trustee Bernhard Madorin discussed the figures in a newsletter published by the Artax Fide Consult company.  In some cases, for example, the canton has found itself accused of liability for malpractice in the hospital system, and in almost all cases the canton as a potential debtor then pleads not guilty - leaving claimants without much recourse.  After five years, the cases are typically purged from the legal system, in practical terms ending the prospect for recovery of damages.  Sarah Wyss, a member of the City of Basel Finance Committee, says the demands are taken absolutely seriously, however she would not comment on the debts as a whole, saying that without knowing each of the cases it was impossible to say if the canton was obliged to pay remuneration or not.  In what's seen by locals as a trend towards Americanization, or the increasing number of legal damages claims by individuals, many seem resigned to increased complaints and higher cantonal debts and payouts.  Ms. Wyss however seemed optimistic nonetheless, saying "over the past decade, Basel has been able to pursue sound fiscal policies with a global budget of around four billion francs" of which potential claims are a small fraction.

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Speed-Demons be warned - The BaselStadt Cantonal government has requested an appropriation of 3.46 million francs from the City's great council to fund new speeding radar control systems.  In making the request, the plan outlined a desire to purchase more of the mobile speed cameras instead of installing fixed systems as in the past.  The government hopes the new system of movable cameras will make enforcement and fine collection more effective and intends to phase out aging fixed cameras which have not reduced speeding to desirable levels.  The canton also pointed out that the newer systems will have lower operational and maintenance costs than the existing out-of-date ones.  According to the Justice and Security Department, in 2014, fines of 4.8 million francs were collected on the road system in Basel, for speeding offenses, approximately 100,000 higher than the prior year.