The Swiss Animal Protection Society (Schweizer Tierschutz) is in trouble. Two of its board members have pressed criminal charges against the association for lack of transparency and misuse of funds. The association is worth 40 million francs, has 8 employees, and last year alone received 8 million francs in donations. Other members resigned accusing management of lack of transparency or of preventing them from doing their job correctly. The president (Nicole Ruch) is calling for both whistleblowers to be removed from the board for lack of loyalty to her.
This weekend a massive demonstration between pro and anti Eritrean government took place in Zurich. An initial event in support of the current president was scheduled to take in Opfikon (ZH), when anti-government demonstrators turned up. A massive brawl ensued during which people were hit with sticks, stones, or beaten. The police had to be brought in and separate the two groups using tear gas, at least 12 people had to be taken to hospitals in the region. Other demonstrations took place in cities all over the country but were less dramatic.
Yet again, the question of whether shops should be allowed to open on a Sunday is on the table. Councillor Guy Parmelin has put a motion forward to allow shops to open seven days a week. There seems to be very little excitement about this, as the main customers would be tourists and the question remains whether there would be much traffic to make it worthwhile. Employees are often paid a bonus for working on Sundays and it is unclear whether it would be financially valuable for shops to open. Currently 45 train stations and 6 airports have shops that remain open on Sundays and a lot of people are arguing that this is enough. The parliament will get to debate this motion later in the year.
The FC Lucerne football team beat FC Lugano yesterday in a home match 3-2. For once there were no after match fights and everyone went home peacefully. This has not always been the case and at least 5 people have either lost the use of an eye or been visually impaired after police has been brought in to manage the situation and fired rubber bullets into the crowd, accidentally hitting people in the eyes with them. The police is now looking at alternative ways of calming the situation down.
It’s an Indian Summer! It will be sunny all week and temperatures will remain in the high 20s during the day. Enjoy!
