Police Vigilant For Fasnacht Fest; Policy To Teach Politics Debated; SBB And RailWorkers Union Spar Over Minibar Service; Basel Stadt Enacts Fee Waivers For Citizenship Seekers

News For 2 February 2016

Basel Police are on a campaign to enhance Basel residents and visitors to be on their guard during the upcoming Fasnacht festival.  Before the official start of festivities and parades in a few weeks, traditional customs such as the upcoming "Fat Thursday" mark the beginning of the holiday for many people.  Unfortunately, this period also attracts would be criminals and especially thieves looking to prey on revelers.  Police cited the usual annual rise in reported thefts and break-ins for their concern.  During their media conference on the subject this week, Police also appealed to attendees to observe the rules and customs of Fasnacht.  And finally, they reiterated their commitment to enforcing drinking and driving rules and encouraged people to use public transport.

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A recent survey of Swiss youths aged 15 to 21 organized by the group Swiss Youth Parliaments revealed that more than half do not understand the issues their community and country face.  The Young Liberals party has taken notice and has proposed an initiative to add politics as a compulsory subject to schools' curriculae.  Peter Wittwer of the Basel Stadt Education department however says "not so fast"...The Basel School System's existing program has classes in Civic Education which, in addition to politics covers history, Gender issues, violence prevention according to Wittmer.  In addition, he points out that the limited resources of the system would be stretched to add a course specifically for politics when other new educational initiatives in Computer Science, for example, would have to be scaled back.  Political Scientist Georg Lutz weighed in on the issue, saying that while adding emphasis to kids political education is an important step to encourage their participation and interest in the subject, overall their political participation (once eligible) is low.

By the end of 2017, the SBB or Swiss Rail Service is planning to phase-out its ubiquitous mini-bar service on its intercity train routes.  Although the service continues to be profitable for the railroad operator, it believes that consolidating and improving its gastronomic options in the dining cars of such trains would improve efficiency and profitability.  The unions representing the approximately 200 employees of the SBB that operate the mobile food vending carts are however suspicious of their employer's motives.  They claim that despite the SBB's assurances that they'd be retrained to work in the new restaurant cars, they believe sooner or later they'd be deemed redundant and let go.  Furthermore, they complain that they had to find out about the railway's plans through the media rather than the regularly planned coordination meetings.  For now, the union has lodged a complaint with the labor arbitrator whose tribunal will determine what outcome both the SBB and the union can expect for its minibar employees.

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In addition to Swiss Federal rules that went into effect last year reducing residency requirements for would-be citizens under the age of 19, the canton of Basel Stadt will also eliminate fees for the young applicants.  Specifically, the rules that will go into effect in 2017, will mean that anyone born in Switzerland, that seeks Swiss Citizenship will also have their municipal and cantonal fees for such a process waived - provided they apply before their 19th birthday.  Those applying will still be required to pay for their federal naturalization permit and the Department of Justice and Security, who is responsible for the process, expects 300 such applicants per year.