Far-right wants residents to have a veto power over local asylum centres; Germany tries to block Zurich airport expansion; and more Swiss news in our Tuesday roundup.
Far-right wants residents to have a veto power over asylum centres in their communities
The Swiss People’s Party (SVP) submitted two motions in the Parliament seeking to grant a right of veto to local communities when asylum centres are to be created on their territory.
One of the petitioners, MP Michaël Buffat, emphasised that municipalities have to put up with disadvantages of hosting these centres, so they must have a say on whether they want these facilities in the first place..
“If the project is well-planned and clearly explained to local population, there’s a good chance they’ll accept it,” he pointed out. “And some municipalities are more open to asylum seekers than others. It’s better for the centres to be built in those communities.”
Germany tries to block Zurich airport expansion
Four German border districts are opposing plans to extend two runways at Zurich Airport, located about 20 km from the German border.
Fearing an increase in noise pollution, they have filed an appeal with the Federal Office of Civil Aviation (FOCA).
Concretely, the districts of Waldshut, Lörrach, Constance, and Black Forest-Baar are contesting the applications for approval of plans to extend runways 28 and 32 at Zurich Airport, they announced Monday in a joint statement.
“We strongly oppose the requests for the extension of runways 32 and 28 to the extent that German airspace would be used even more than before by noisy wide-body aircraft,” the four districts said,.
Swiss property prices continued their upward trend in June
Residential property prices continued to rise last month in Switzerland, though regional disparities are relatively significant, the real estate portal Immoscout24 indicated in its report on Monday.
Over the course of a year, house prices rose by 3.1 percent in June, to 8,011 francs per square metre, while apartment prices increased by 4.5 percent to 9,526 francs.
The Zurich region recorded the strongest growth in prices with a monthly increase of 2.3 percent, followed by Central Switzerland (+1.7 percent), Northwest (+1.5 percent), Ticino (+1.1 percent), and the Geneva region (+0.4 percent).
Fireworks may not be allowed on August 1st
If the heatwave and drought continue throughout the month, municipalities could ban traditional firework displays on National Day, August 1st.
More and more cantons are imposing firework bans due to the ongoing drought and heightened risk of wildfires.
According to MeteoSwiss weather service, without prolonged rainfall – which is not forecast for the mear future – the drought is unlikely to improve significantly before the national holiday.
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