Echo

Adrian Frutiger

We have all seen his work – usually unknowingly but almost on a daily basis. Adrian Frutiger is a legendary figure amongst typographers, printers and designers. His most famous creation, the “Frutiger” font, was produced in 1975. He also designed the family of “Univers” fonts and finally the “Astra Frutiger”, the typeface used on all traffic signs in Switzerland.

Born in 1928 in Interlaken, Frutiger undertook an apprenticeship as a compositor there, attended the school of applied arts in Zurich and went to Paris in 1952. He finally returned to Switzerland – after a highly successful career – to Bremgarten near Berne. He died there in September at the age of 87.

Abolishing dual citizenship

The Swiss People’s Party (SVP) wants to ban dual citizenship in Switzerland. In three cantons, Basel-Landschaft, Zug and Nidwalden, SVP MPs are calling on the canton to submit a cantonal initiative so the federal government amends the Swiss Citizenship Act accordingly. Lukas Reimann, the SVP National Councillor from St. Gallen, has also submitted a motion. He wants to ensure that citizens from countries that do not allow Swiss citizens to hold dual citizenship are in turn not entitled to dual citizenship. The justification of the proposals: dual citizenship undermines loyalty to Switzerland and is detrimental to integration. This opinion is clearly shared by Roland Rino Büchel, the OSA Executive Board member and SVP National Councillor, who asked the Federal Council how many dual citizens are performing military service with the Swiss Border Guard and whether loyalty issues existed. A ban on dual citizenship would be a big blow to the Swiss Abroad: 73 % of the 750,000 Swiss Abroad have dual nationality.

Initiative target reached

Enough signatures have been collected for a vote on the popular initiative “Schweizer Recht statt fremde Richter” (Swiss law instead of foreign judges). SVP President Toni Brunner announced at the beginning of October that his organisation had gathered 110,000 signatures. Those behind the initiative are demanding that national law takes precedence over international law in Switzerland. The initiative primarily seeks to prevent the European Court of Human Rights finding fault with Swiss popular initiatives if they infringe upon international law.

Naturalised citizens integrate better

A study conducted by the universities of Zurich, Stanford and Mannheim, which was supported by the Swiss National Science Foundation, has concluded that naturalised citizens integrate better and more quickly into society. The researchers found that the naturalisation of immigrants acted as a catalyst for integration for all groups analysed – from well educated to poorly educated.