Anger at Swiss ski resort over failure to protect people

Following the devastating fire at a bar in Crans-Montana, many Swiss citizens are wondering if their political system is fit for purpose.

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

It’s a system that the Swiss cherish because they believe it ensures accountability.

But there are inherent weaknesses: Hypothetically, the official who approves a bar license or passes a fire safety inspection is the friend, neighbor, or perhaps even cousin of the bar owner.

When news of the fire broke on New Year’s Eve, there was initially shock. It was thought that such devastating fires were not supposed to happen in Switzerland.

Then there was sorrow: 40 young people lost their lives, 116 were injured, many of them very seriously. Questions followed: what caused such a catastrophe?

And finally, this week, fury when the mayor of Crans-Montana, Nicolas Feraud, revealed that the Le Constellation bar had 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 are supposed to take place every 12 months.

Not only did the checks not take place, specifies the mayor, but he only became aware of it after the fire. And, he revealed, out of 128 bars and restaurants in Crans-Montana, only 40 had been controlled in 2025.

When asked why, Feraud had no answer, although he suggested that Crans-Montana had too few inspectors for the number of properties being checked.

This was echoed by Romy Biner, mayor of the neighboring resort town of Zermatt, who told local media that many municipalities in the canton of Valais did not have the resources to inspect so many premises. It’s not a line that appeals to many Swiss, who know that Crans-Montana and Zermatt are two of the country’s richest winter resorts.

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

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

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

When they escaped from the burning bar, each of his sons initially thought the other was dead.

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

These questions, asked by journalists and families, reveal the problems of Switzerland’s decentralized political system.

Elected officials in cities like Crans-Montana have many responsibilities in addition to fire safety: managing schools and social services, even collecting taxes.

Most of these civil servants work part-time and, once elected, continue their daily work.

These days, some municipalities may be struggling to provide and oversee all the services a 21st century population expects, but Swiss voters expect better than what they heard from Mayor Feraud.

The headlines after his press conference were wild. Many have called for the resignation of Mayor Féraud and his colleagues. Féraud ruled it out, saying: “We were elected by the people. We don’t abandon the ship in the middle of a storm.”

“A general failure,” writes the Tagesanzeiger newspaper. “Switzerland’s reputation is now at stake.”

“A total disaster,” wrote the tabloid Blick, “a complete failure of fire safety controls.”

The Swiss both hate and fear reputational damage. Switzerland is a wealthy country, in part due to its reputation for security, stability, reliability and, among its own citizens, accountability.

If those responsible damage this reputation and jeopardize the success of the country, the Swiss do not forgive.

Heads rolled twenty years ago when Swissair, the popular national airline, went bankrupt.

Once affectionately known as “the flying bank”, Swissair’s management had made a series of risky financial investments that left the airline dangerously out of date.

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

When the bank’s irresponsible overexposure to subprime mortgages was revealed, outrage erupted. At the bank’s annual general meeting that year, usually calm elderly shareholders whistled and booed.

Some even went on stage to ask management to give up their generous bonuses, ironically brandishing a string of Swiss sausages under their noses “in case you are hungry”.

Crans-Montana also aroused this same feeling of anger, of betrayed trust. But it is much worse than Swissair or UBS. Forty people, including many teenagers, died. Dozens more suffered life-changing injuries.

The Swiss authorities know that answers must be provided quickly.

HAS Friday Memorial ServiceValais President Matthias Reynard was on the verge of tears as he promised a “strict and independent” investigation, warning that “the competent political authorities” would be held responsible.

Swiss President Guy Parmelin said he hoped justice would be served “without delay and without leniency”.

The bar owner is now in custody and under criminal investigation, but the role of local government will certainly also be examined. In the canton of Valais, voices have already been raised to demand that fire safety control be removed from the municipalities and entrusted to the cantonal authorities.

Romain Jourdan, lawyer for some of the families, announced his intention to file a complaint against the municipality of Crans-Montana. The families, he added, “demand that all local officials be questioned, so that such a tragedy does not happen again.”

Deeper introspection is also underway nationally. The Swiss want to know why their beloved system of decentralization, which many, perhaps complacently, believed to be almost perfect, went so catastrophically wrong.

In the first hours after the fire, many people, despite their shock and grief, felt a certain quiet pride that the emergency services had responded so quickly.

Firefighters, ambulances and even helicopters arrived on scene within minutes. Emergency services were present at the memorial ceremony. Many were crying openly.

The shock and sorrow still run deep, but the pride has evaporated.

What good are high-end, highly professional emergency services, the Swiss ask, if basic fire safety controls are neglected?

The Swiss government says finding answers is a moral responsibility – to families above all, but also to its own voters.