Tag: Swiss Post

Two pillars of Swiss nationhood are being tested Sunday citizenship and the post office.

Voting in referendums, the cornerstone of their system of direct democracy, the Swiss will decide whether to loosen the Alpine country’s tough rules on naturalising foreigners, and whether to block their government’s cost-cutting campaign to shut post offices. Both have provoked bitter debate in a nation where political consensus has been the watchword.

The government’s proposed change of citizenship laws represents a recognition that Switzerland, long accustomed to homogeneity within its Alpine ramparts, is becoming a multicultural society.

The government has launched its campaign against a people’s initiative aimed at preventing the closure of 800 rural post offices. It said the costs of maintaining the current postal network were too high, but Communications Minister Moritz Leuenberger guaranteed to ensure a decent level of service. The people’s initiative, which is due to go to a nationwide vote on September 26, has been put forward by an alliance made up of a trade union, a consumer group and rural organisations. Entitled “Postal Services for Everyone”, it rejects moves by state-owned Swiss Post to close down hundreds of small, loss-making post offices in order to save money and remain competitive. It also calls on the government to provide subsidies for post offices in remote villages.

There have been Swiss stamps smelling of chocolate and made of lace, and now there’s one with an Alpine forest feel. Swiss Post has launched its latest unusual commemorative stamp – a square of pinewood roughly the thickness of a credit card.

Designed by Thomas Rathgeb, a Swiss Post graphic artist, the stamps are made from 120-year-old pines felled in northern Switzerland. They have a face value of 5 Swiss francs, or 4 dollars.