After the devastating fire at a bar in Crans-Montana, many Swiss citizens are asking themselves if their political system is fit for purpose.
Switzerland, often praised for its efficiency, has a devolved system of government, where villages and towns are run by local officials elected from and by the community.
It’s a system the Swiss love, because they believe it ensures accountability.
But there are inherent weaknesses: hypothetically, the official who approves the bar license or passes a fire-safety check is a friend, neighbor, or maybe even a cousin of the bar owner.
When news of the New Year’s Eve fire broke, first there was shock. Such destructive fires do not, people think, happen in Switzerland.
Then there was the tragedy – 40 young people lost their lives, 116 were injured, most of them seriously. Questions follow – what caused the disaster?
And finally, this week – outrage when the Mayor of Crans-Montana, Nicolas Feraud, revealed that Le Constellation bar has not been inspected since 2019.
Crans-Montana is in the Swiss canton of Valais, where fire safety inspections are the responsibility of Mayor Feraud and his colleagues, and they must take place every 12 months.
Not only did the inspections not happen, according to the mayor, he only found out about it after the fire. And, he revealed, of the 128 bars and restaurants in Crans-Montana, only 40 have been inspected in 2025.
Asked why, Feraud had no answer, although he suggested that Crans-Montana has too few inspectors for the number of properties that need to be inspected.
This was echoed by Romy Biner, the mayor of the nearby upmarket resort Zermatt, who told local media that many communities in the canton of Valais do not have the necessary resources to investigate many areas. It’s not a line that many Swiss play well, knowing that Crans-Montana and Zermatt are two of the country’s wealthiest winter resorts.
So when Feraud faced the press, there were pointed questions from Swiss journalists: How well does the mayor know the bar owners? Has he been to the bar? And, is there a possibility of corruption?
“Absolutely not,” was his angry reply to the last question.
The mother of the two brothers who survived the fire also had questions. “We urgently need complete, transparent answers,” he wrote on social media.
When they escape the burning bar, each of his sons at first thinks the other is dead.
“They escaped, but their trauma was severe. They will carry the emotional scars forever.”
Those questions, from journalists and families, reveal the problems of Switzerland’s decentralized political system.
Elected officials in cities like Crans-Montana have many responsibilities as well as fire safety – running schools and social services, even collecting taxes.
Most of these officers work part-time and, once elected, continue their day jobs.
Nowadays some communes may be over-challenged trying to supply and manage all the services the population expects in the 21st Century, but Swiss voters expect better than what they heard from Mayor Feraud.
The headlines after his press conference were intense. Many are asking Mayor Feraud and his colleagues to resign. Feraud rejected this, saying, “the people chose us. You don’t abandon ship in the middle of a storm”.
“A failure right across the board”, wrote the broadsheet Tagesanzeiger. “Now Switzerland’s reputation is on the line.”
“An absolute disaster”, wrote the tabloid Blick, “a complete failure of fire safety checks.”
Reputational damage is something the Swiss hate and fear. Switzerland is a wealthy country, in part because of its reputation for safety, stability, reliability, and, among its own citizens, accountability.
When those in charge damage the reputation, and jeopardize the success of the country, the Swiss are unforgiving.
Heads rolled two decades ago when Swissair, the much-loved national airline, went bankrupt.
Once nicknamed “the flying bank”, Swissair’s management made a series of risky financial investments that left the airline dangerously over-extended.
In 2008, the banking giant UBS, in which many Swiss, especially pensioners, have shares, had to be bailed out by Swiss taxpayers to prevent not only its own fall, but disastrous consequences for the world economy.
When the bank’s undoubted overexposure to subprime mortgages was revealed, there was outrage. At the bank’s annual general meeting that year, the old shareholders usually calmed down with hissing and jeers.
One even jumped on stage, asking management to give up their generous bonuses, jokingly waving a bunch of Swiss bratwursts under their noses “if you’re hungry”.
Crans-Montana, too, evoked the same angry feeling of trust betrayed. But it is worse than Swissair or UBS. Forty people, most of them teenagers, died. Many more suffered life-changing injuries.
The Swiss authorities knew there had to be answers, fast.
on The memorial service is Fridaythe president of Valais, Matthias Reynard, was close to tears as he promised a “strict and independent” investigation, warning that the “relevant political authorities” would be held accountable.
Swiss president Guy Parmelin said he expected justice “without delay and without mercy”.
The owner of the bar is now in custody, under criminal investigation, but the role of the local government is sure to be examined as well. There are already calls for a fire safety inspection in the Valais canton to be taken from the local town councils and given to the cantonal authorities.
Romain Jourdan, a lawyer acting for several families, announced plans to file a lawsuit against the Crans-Montana town council. The families, he said, “request that all local officials be questioned, so that such a tragedy does not happen again”.
There is a deeper, nationwide soul-searching going on as well. The Swiss want to know why their beloved devolved system, which many, perhaps complacently, believe is almost perfect, has gone so wrong.
In the first hours after the fire, many people, with their shock and grief, felt a quiet pride that their emergency services responded quickly.
Firefighters, ambulance crews, and even helicopters were on the scene within minutes. Emergency services are available at the memorial service. Many were visibly crying.
The shock and sadness remained deep, but the pride was gone.
What good are top-of-the-range, highly professional emergency services, the Swiss ask themselves, if basic fire safety checks are neglected?
The Swiss government says that finding answers is a moral responsibility – to families above all, but also to its own voters.