Anger at Swiss ski bar resort at failure to protect people

Following a devastating fire at a bar in Crans-Montana, many Swiss citizens are asking themselves whether their political system is fit for purpose.

Often praised for its efficiency, Switzerland has a highly developed system of government in which villages and towns are governed by local officials elected from within and by the community.

This is a system that the Swiss value because they believe it provides accountability.

But there are inherent weaknesses: Hypothetically, the official approving the pub license or conducting the fire safety check could be the bar owner’s friend, neighbour, perhaps even cousin.

When news of the fire emerged on New Year’s Eve, there was shock at first. People thought that such devastating fires should not occur in Switzerland.

Then there was great sadness; 40 young people lost their lives and 116 people were injured, most of them seriously. The questions that follow: What caused such a disaster?

And finally this week, Crans-Montana Mayor Nicolas Feraud’s announcement that the Le Constellation bar had not been inspected since 2019 was met with outrage.

Crans-Montana is located in the Swiss canton of Valais, where fire safety inspections are the responsibility of Mayor Feraud and his colleagues, and must be carried out every 12 months.

The mayor said that not only were checks not carried out, but this was only realized after the fire. And he announced that only 40 of 128 bars and restaurants in Crans-Montana will be inspected in 2025.

When asked why, Feraud did not have an answer, but suggested there were too few inspectors in Crans-Montana for the number of properties that needed to be inspected.

This was echoed by Romy Biner, mayor of the neighboring luxury resort town of Zermatt, who told local media that many communities in the canton of Valais did not have the resources to oversee so many facilities. This is not a welcome line for many Swiss, who know that Crans-Montana and Zermatt are two of the richest winter resorts in the country.

When Feraud faced the press, Swiss journalists had harsh questions: How well did the mayor know the bar’s owners? Had he ever been to a bar? So was there a possibility of corruption?

“Absolutely not,” was his angry response to the last question.

The mother of the two siblings who survived the fire also had questions. “We urgently need complete and transparent answers,” he wrote on social media.

When they escaped from the burning bar, each of their sons at first thought the other was dead.

“They escaped, but they are deeply traumatized. They will carry the emotional scars forever.”

These questions from journalists and families reveal the problems of Switzerland’s devolved political system.

Elected officials in towns like Crans-Montana have many responsibilities, including fire safety, managing schools and social services, and even collecting taxes.

Many of these officials work part-time and continue their day jobs once elected.

Some communes these days may be overstretched to provide and oversee all the services that a 21st-century population expects, but Swiss voters expect better than what they hear from Mayor Feraud.

The headlines following the press conference were wild. Many people demanded the resignation of Mayor Feraud and his colleagues. Feraud refused, saying, “We were elected by the people. You can’t abandon ship in the middle of the storm.”

“A complete failure,” wrote the Tagesanzeiger newspaper. “Now Switzerland’s reputation is at stake.”

“An absolute disaster,” wrote tabloid Blick, “a complete failure of fire safety controls.”

Damage to reputation is something the Swiss both hate and fear. Switzerland is a wealthy country, in part because of its reputation for security, stability, reliability and accountability among its citizens.

The Swiss will be unforgivable if those responsible damage this reputation and jeopardize the country’s success.

Twenty years ago there was confusion when the much-loved national airline Swissair went bankrupt.

Once affectionately nicknamed the “flying bank”, Swissair’s management had made a series of risky financial investments that resulted in the airline’s dangerous overexpansion.

In 2008, the banking giant UBS, in which many Swiss, especially retirees, owned shares, had to be bailed out by Swiss taxpayers to prevent not only its own collapse, but also the disastrous consequences for the global economy.

There was outrage when it was revealed that the bank was recklessly overexposed to subprime mortgages. At the bank’s annual general meeting that year, normally calm elderly shareholders hissed and booed.

One even jumped on stage and demanded management give up their generous bonuses, ironically waving a string of Swiss sausages under their noses “in case you get hungry.”

Crans-Montana saw the same angry sense of confidence betrayed. But this is much worse than Swissair or UBS. Forty people died, most of them young people. Dozens more people suffered life-changing injuries.

Swiss officials know that these questions must be answered quickly.

At Friday’s memorial service, Valais president Matthias Reynard broke down in tears as he promised a “strict and independent” investigation and warned that “the relevant political authorities” would be held accountable.

Swiss president Guy Parmelin said he expected justice “without delay and without tolerance”.

The owner of the bar is currently in custody and subject to criminal investigation, but the role of the local government is certain to be examined as well. There are already calls in the canton of Valais for fire safety control to be taken away from local municipal councils and handed over to the cantonal authorities.

Romain Jourdan, a lawyer for some of the families, announced that he plans to file a lawsuit against the Crans-Montana city council. The families “demand that all local officials be questioned to ensure that such a tragedy never happens again,” he said.

A deeper spiritual quest is also ongoing across the country. The Swiss want to know why the devolved system, which many perhaps complacently believe is near-perfect, went so disastrously wrong.

In the first hours after the fire, many people, alongside their shock and pain, felt a sense of quiet pride at how quickly the emergency services responded.

Fire crews, ambulance crews and even helicopters arrived at the scene within minutes. Emergency service teams were also present at the commemoration ceremony. Many cried openly.

The shock and grief still sink in, but the pride has evaporated.

What good are best-in-class, highly professional emergency services, the Swiss ask themselves, if basic fire safety checks are neglected?

The Swiss government says finding answers is a moral responsibility, first and foremost to families, but also to its own voters.