Talk:Switzerland

Tourism index

I know CH has very good infrastructure when it comes to tourism. Everything WORKS. Besides personnel is generally well trained and some chefs are graduates from top hosteling Schools (e.g. Lausanne "ecole hoteliere"). Swiss people are generally very hospitable. Cleanliness is also a plus factor for CH. Safety is generally good. All this should be mentioned in the economy section. May be there is a summary Index for tourism (besides the Tourism revenues rankings). On the minus side: cost of living which is already reported in the economy section. Cheers. Swiss romulus (talk) 22:13, 6 January 2021 (UTC)

Plus beautiful landscapes.172.58.236.177 (talk) 05:03, 19 November 2021 (UTC)

Minus the fact of racial discrimination of non-Europeans visitors:

32% of the population say they have experienced some form of discrimination or violence in the past 5 years (2021).

— Preceding unsigned comment added by 172.58.236.99 (talk) 16:02, 21 September 2021 (UTC)

References

Untitled (Romansch)

Romansch language is equal by law to the other three official languages and should be reflected as such — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2601:14f:4401:6380:d449:6e4f:9ee7:5e29 (talk) 02:23, 23 September 2021 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 24 October 2021

Federal semi-direct democracy under a assembly-independent[5][6] directorial republic

Should read:

Federal semi-direct democracy under an assembly-independent[5][6] directorial republic

Poor English/typo Ahendric (talk) 21:30, 24 October 2021 (UTC)

 Done and thanks for spotting and reporting this. — JohnFromPinckney (talk / edits) 23:35, 24 October 2021 (UTC)

Germaine de Staël

Why is Madame de Staël listed as a Swiss French-speaking writer in the article? She was French, nothing else, although of Swiss descent (which could perhaps make her a "French writer of Swiss descent", but definitely not just a "Swiss writer"). She was born in France, died in France, spent the vast majority of her life in France, and did almost everything she's famous for in France. She spent some of her time in exile in Switzerland, but she also spent time in Germany, England, Austria, Russia and Sweden, so there's absolutely no basis for claiming she was a "Swiss writer"! - Drachentöter001 (talk) 16:28, 28 October 2021 (UTC)

Immediate Post-WWII Period Lacking

This article and its offspring are lacking in information about the post WWII period (1946-1958). Efforts by the Allies to get Switzerland involved in reparations involving Nazi gold are not mentioned here but discussed in US National Archives Records of Foreign Service Posts: Switzerland. See [1]. The British and US conducted aerial photography missions over Switzerland with Swiss permission in 1946. See [2] And while Switzerland restricted border crossings by US Persons during the war, this video shows US troops sightseeing in Switzerland in 1946. See [3]. Certainly something could be said about Switzerland in the post-war period. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Pnoble805 (talk • contribs) 19:33, 31 October 2021 (UTC)

What does de jure capital mean?

While it may be interesting to discuss why Switzerland avoided to use the term Hauptstadt, I do not think it is a good reason to make the distinction between de jure and de facto capital just for Switzerland. The constitutions of Canada and Australia use the term "seat of government", are Ottawa and Canberra also de facto capitals? The seat of the Swiss federal government is legally defined to be in Bern (article 58 of the Government and Administration Organisation Act). That "Switzerland has no capital" seems to be like a factoid paraded around as a "fun fact" when it is not that unusual. A better argument could be made for France, the seat of government not formally conferred by law to Paris, than for Switzerland to be without a de jure capital. As such, I would suggest to remove such artificial distinction from the infobox. 31.10.162.187 (talk) 01:57, 9 January 2022 (UTC)

The current description given in the infobox (no capital city de jure, and Bern de facto) is satisfactory as it is in accordance with the legal texts. On the one hand the 1999 constitution of Switzerland does not mention a capital city and, what’s even more significant, a recent attempt made to change that failed (as is described in details in the article). On the other hand almost all government institutions are located in Bern (but not all of them: for instance the Federal Supreme Court of Switzerland is not). --Sapphorain (talk) 10:35, 9 January 2022 (UTC)

Bern is de jure the seat of government, the definition of capital in English, and the seat of the "supreme authority" of the Confederation. No other country seems to get the same treatment. For example, there is no mention of Paris in the French constitution. The UK and New Zealand does not even have a single coherent written constitution. None of these countries have the note "de facto". Even with in Switzerland, the cantonal capitals do not get the extra notes, e.g. Delémont is listed as the capital for Jura, not the de facto capital. I think a consistent approach is needed. Zhantongz (talk) 17:43, 9 January 2022 (UTC)