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How Switzerland plans to tackle its vaccine scepticism problem

Switzerland’s expanding vaccination campaign has already encountered a degree of scepticism. Here’s what the government hopes to do about it.

How Switzerland plans to tackle its vaccine scepticism problem
Vaccine scepticism is as high as 40 percent in one Swiss canton. Photo: Fabrice COFFRINI / AFP

On Wednesday, June 23rd, Switzerland announced coronavirus measures would be relaxed far more significantly than had previously been thought. 

When making the announcement, Swiss Health Minister Alain Berset said while he acknowledged the plan was “quite brave”, Switzerland was relying on its vaccination rollout to prevent another wave of the virus to sweep across the country in autumn.

As of June 25th, 57 percent of the population have had at least one shot of the vaccine. 

Is vaccine scepticism Switzerland’s new ‘Röstigraben’?

Switzerland – a country with three large linguistic regions and 26 cantons who each would probably like to think of themselves as countries – is often marked by its differences more than its similarities.

The Röstigraben is a nickname given to the cultural divide between French and German-speaking Switzerland.

When it comes to vaccines, a new divide has opened up – that between the city and the country.

EXPLAINED: What exactly is ‘coronagraben’ in Switzerland?

A new study has found that rural cantons – particularly the smaller, central German-speaking cantons – are far more skeptical of the vaccine. 

Four out of ten residents of Obwalden said they will not get the vaccine, while 35 percent of Appenzeller Innerrhoden have the same opinion. 

Conversely, only 15 percent of people in the cities of Basel, Aarau, Geneva and Zurich said they are unwilling to be vaccinated. 

In total, 22 percent of Swiss have said they will not get the vaccine – which significantly impacts Switzerland’s chances of reaching ‘herd immunity’. 

There is also a gender and generation gap, with young women being particularly reluctant to get the jab. 

Among those over 75, only seven percent said they will not be vaccinated, compared to 30 percent of those under 45. 

How will Switzerland tackle its vaccination scepticism problem? 

Switzerland has repeatedly said the vaccine will not be made mandatory. 

Reader question: Will Switzerland make the coronavirus vaccine compulsory?

While Berset has frequently ruled out making the vaccine mandatory, even if the government wanted to it is unlikely such a measure would be allowed under Swiss law. 

The official website of the Swiss government’s coronavirus health plan says the following. 

“A general obligation to vaccinate the population is fundamentally ruled out by law. Through transparent and comprehensible information, every person should be able to decide freely whether they want to be vaccinated.”

That said, Berset has employed some trademark Swiss honest pragmatism in trying to encourage skeptics to get the jab. 

Berset told Switzerland’s NZZ newspaper people need to decide how they will come into contact with the virus, not if. 

“Everyone will come into contact with the virus eventually: either through a vaccination or through an infection.”

In addition to educational campaigns encouraging people to get the jab, Switzerland is winding out its immunity passport which will give vaccinated people certain privileges. 

While this has not yet been finalised, it will include allowing people to visit nightclubs, sporting events, discos and other venues, along with events such as weddings, with no cap on the amount of people that can attend. 

READ MORE: What are the new rules for events including weddings in Switzerland?

The cantons are also taking steps to make vaccination easier, for instance by kicking off ‘walk in’ vaccinations, and employing mobile vaccination teams to get the jabs out to as many people as possible. 

According to the NZZ, the government is currently considering more “creative” ways to get sceptical people vaccinated. 

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Tractors converge on Rome as farmers protest across Europe

A convoy of tractors was poised Saturday to descend on Rome as farmers' protests caused disruptions across Europe, though they wound down in France following government concessions.

Tractors converge on Rome as farmers protest across Europe

Farmers have expressed anger at what they say are excessively restrictive regulations on agriculture and unfair competition, among other grievances.

The movement erupted in France last month and there have also been protests in Germany, Belgium, Poland, Romania, Greece and the Netherlands.

Farmers have blocked motorways and disrupted traffic in key cities with convoys of tractors.

In Italy on Saturday, around 150 tractors massed in Orte, about an hour north of Rome.

READ ALSO: ‘Betrayed by Europe’: Italian farmers step up protests

Protesters there called for better pay and conditions and announced their imminent arrival in the Italian capital, an AFP reporter saw.

An Italian farmer stands on a tractor in the center of Milan during a protest on February 1, 2024. A placard (L) reads 'No agriculture, No food, no future'

An Italian farmer stands on a tractor in the centre of Milan during a protest on February 1, 2024. A placard (L) reads ‘No agriculture, No food, no future’. (Photo by GABRIEL BOUYS / AFP)

“Italian agriculture has woken up,” said protester Felice Antonio Monfeli.

“It’s historic and the people here are proving it. For the first time in their history, farmers are united under the same flag, that of Italy.”

The demonstrators have for days been calling for talks with Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s government, without having had a response so far.

“The situation is critical, we cannot be slaves in our own companies,” said another protester, Domenico Chiergi.

Germany, Switzerland, Spain, France

In Germany, hundreds of farmers on tractors disrupted access to Frankfurt airport, the country’s busiest, in opposition to a reform of diesel taxation, police said.

A Hesse farmers’ association estimated vehicle numbers at around 1,000, while police said 400 tractors took part before the protest ended in the early afternoon.

READ ALSO: German farmers block access to key shipping ports in new round of protests

A protest on the Dutch-Belgian border that had shut down a main motorway was wound down on Saturday evening, the Belga news agency reported.

A tractor decorated with German flags and a placard reading "Bureaucracy and laws without reason - First the Farmer Dies, then the Land" is seen during a protest of farmers and truck drivers, on January 15, 2024 in Berlin

A tractor decorated with German flags and a placard reading “Bureaucracy and laws without reason – First the Farmer Dies, then the Land” is seen during a protest of farmers and truck drivers, on January 15, 2024 in Berlin. (Photo by John MACDOUGALL / AFP)

Farmer discontent has also affected non-EU Switzerland, where around 30 tractors paraded in Geneva on Saturday in the country’s first such protest since the movement started elsewhere in Europe.

“As a young person, it scares us a lot not knowing if there is a future in our profession,” Antonin Ramu, a 19-year-old apprentice winegrower, told AFP.

He welcomed the transition to a more environmentally friendly agriculture but asked for more help in the face of competition from countries without the same standards.

In Spain, the three main farmers’ unions have announced more protests in the coming weeks, with a major demonstration planned for Barcelona on February 13.

A Spanish farmer drives a tractor along the road during a protest in demand of fair conditions for the agricultural sector, in Leon, northern Spain

A Spanish farmer drives a tractor along the road during a protest in demand of fair conditions for the agricultural sector, in Leon, northern Spain, on February 1, 2024. The sign reads ‘Farmers wake up – Fair prices now’. (Photo by CESAR MANSO / AFP)

In France, security forces cleared the few remaining blockades of motorways a day after the main agricultural union called for them to be lifted following government concessions.

READ ALSO: French farmers lift roadblocks as Europe protests persist

Their mobilisation had forced new Prime Minister Gabriel Attal’s government to pause a plan to reduce pesticide and insecticide use and offer an aid package of 400 million euros.

Romanian farmers and hauliers also announced the end of their road-block protest on Saturday following an agreement with the government.

Greek farmers consider escalation

In Greece, around 2,000 farmers protested in the country’s second-largest city of Thessaloniki on Saturday calling for increases in aid.

Their action came a day after Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis announced further support measures.

Some farmers from the mountain villages of Thessaly threw chestnuts and apples that had spoiled because of the natural disasters that hit the region.

“We have no food, we cannot put our lives in discount,” Kostas Tzelas, president of the Rural Associations of Karditsa, told AFP.

“We want to stay on our land and not become migrants.”

Farmers drive their tractors during a protest called by local branches of major farmer unions FNSEA and Jeunes Agriculteurs, blocking the A35 highway with tractors near Strasbourg, eastern France,

Farmers drive their tractors during a protest called by local branches of major farmer unions FNSEA and Jeunes Agriculteurs, blocking the A35 highway with tractors near Strasbourg, eastern France, on January 30, 2024, amid nationwide protests. (Photo by Frederick FLORIN / AFP)

Mitsotakis has already extended the refund of a special consumption tax on oil and a discount on rural electricity from May to September.

It is among a package of measures whose cost Mitsotakis put at more than one billion euros ($1.1 billion).

But Tzelas dismissed these measures as “peanuts”.

The president of a union of agricultural associations, Rizos Maroudas, told reporters a meeting was scheduled next week “to decide the escalation of blockades”.

The EU is scrambling to address concerns ahead of European Parliament elections this year.

The European Commission on Thursday promised measures to defend the “legitimate interests” of EU farmers, notably the much criticised administrative burdens of the bloc’s Common Agricultural Policy.

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