From landslides to the ESC These Swiss made international headlines in 2025
This year, Swiss people helped shape global debates - and the rest of the world was watching. A selection of personalities who were in the spotlight this year.
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- Various Swiss personalities were also in the international spotlight in 2025.
- In economic terms, for example, "Team Switzerland" made headlines when it successfully campaigned against US punitive tariffs with gifts to Donald Trump.
- Major events such as the European Women's Championships and the Eurovision Song Contest made Switzerland a world-class venue, while campaigns such as the Gaza flotilla and Infantino's honouring of Trump were politically polarizing.
2025 was certainly not an easy year. Wars, tariffs and technological upheaval dominated the international headlines. But 2025 also showed just how present Switzerland can be on the global stage - far beyond the clichés of neutrality and Alpine romanticism.
Swiss personalities were involved in major political decisions this year, moved with determination in the wake of a natural disaster, shaped global debates on the climate or put Switzerland in the spotlight with major events.
Whether in the White House, in front of the European Court of Human Rights or on the big stage at the ESC, these Swiss citizens were the focus of global attention. Some were celebrated, others polarized - but all were responsible for Switzerland being talked about internationally in 2025.
The ESC moderation trio
The Eurovision Song Contest attracted around 500,000 visitors to Basel in May and generated added value of 115 million francs. The fact that the major event was also a complete success in terms of international perception was not only due to Zoë Më's soulful ballad "Voyage", but above all to the trio of presenters.
Michelle Hunziker, Hazel Brugger and Sandra Studer scored with self-irony, wit and sympathy. The latter two even landed a veritable hit in the semi-final with their song "Made in Switzerland". Hunziker added international glamor to the already strong duo in the final.
No question: what the three women delivered was world-class show business. And all of it: Made in Switzerland.
Matthias Bellwald
At the end of May, a large section of the Birch Glacier in the Lötschental valley in Valais collapsed and buried around 90 percent of the village of Blatten under a huge avalanche of debris and ice. The natural disaster caused national and international consternation.
Matthias Bellwald came to the fore during this difficult time. Elected to the municipal council at the beginning of the year, Bellwald faced the media from the outset to provide information about the situation, the risks and how to protect the residents, to offer reassuring words and at the same time to call on Switzerland to stand together and rebuild.
Always controlled, never too emotional and yet memorable, he gave the suffering village a voice that was heard beyond the country's borders. For example, the German magazine "Spiegel" ran the headline "Ground Zero Blatten " - referring to a statement by the mayor of Blatten.
Cordelia Bähr
The Time 100 list is the US magazine Time's annual selection of the world's 100 most influential personalities from politics, culture, business and society. This year, there is exactly one person from Switzerland in this illustrious company: Cordelia Bähr.
As the leading lawyer of the association "KlimaSeniorinnen Schweiz", Bähr led a nine-year legal battle against the Swiss state. She represented around 3,000 women of retirement age before the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), arguing that Switzerland was violating human rights by taking insufficient climate protection measures.
The historic ruling came in 2024: the ECtHR ruled in favor of the climate senior citizens and established that a state is obliged to protect its citizens from the serious consequences of the climate crisis. This success made Bähr the most visible figure in Swiss climate law in 2025.
Team Switzerland
On National Day of all days, US President Donald Trump announced that the USA would impose punitive tariffs of 39% on Swiss exports. The shock in the local economy was profound, and competitors abroad sensed a competitive advantage.
After efforts by Swiss diplomats to reach a customs agreement had failed to bear fruit, it was a handful of Swiss business leaders who persuaded Trump to rethink his position in November. Shortly afterwards, Federal Councillor Guy Parmelin traveled to the USA to negotiate the final details. On December 10, the Minister of Economic Affairs announced: Tariffs would be reduced to 15 percent, retroactively from November 14.
The gifts - a Rolex and a gold bar - that Team Switzerland gave the US President also caused a stir. Critics saw this as suspected bribery. The Greens and the Young Socialists even filed a criminal complaint with the Office of the Attorney General.
Alfred Gantner, co-founder of the investment firm Partners Group and part of Team Switzerland, publicly defended the approach. He said it was "absolutely customary to bring a gift when you go to the Oval Office". It was not about the material value, but the symbolic value. Moreover, the gifts were not intended for Donald Trump, "but for the American public, for the Presidential Library".
Swiss Gaza activists
A total of 19 Swiss nationals were among the more than 450 activists from the Gaza aid flotilla "Global Sumud Flotilla", which aimed to break the Israeli naval blockade of Gaza and supply the local population with relief supplies. The plan failed: at the beginning of October, the Israeli navy captured all 44 ships about 100 kilometers off the coast of Gaza in international waters.
The Swiss activists were subsequently taken into Israeli custody, but were able to return to Switzerland a few days later. Hundreds of demonstrators welcomed the activists, who returned on different days.
Doris Keller
31 thrilling matches, hundreds of thousands of enthusiastic football fans and a successful Swiss national team turned this year's European Women's Championship in Switzerland into a summer fairytale. As tournament director, Doris Keller was the face of the major event.
Keller took up her post in May 2023. She far exceeded the ambitious goals she communicated in advance: the Women's Euro offered sold-out stadiums, attractive fan zones and smooth organization. The exemplary major event received a great deal of recognition both nationally and internationally.
"We have achieved a great deal with this European Championship," Keller told the Keystone-SDA news agency after the tournament. "We set a record with over 650,000 fans in the stadiums. Most of the expectations we had before this tournament were clearly exceeded."
In October, Doris Keller was awarded the 2025 Sports Prize by the canton of Zurich together with Marion Daube, Director of Women's Football at the Swiss Football Association. "With their commitment, the two women have contributed to the success of the tournament in Switzerland," it said in the citation.
Gianni Infantino
The draw for the 2026 World Cup in the USA moved football fans around the world at the beginning of December. In the leading role alongside US President Donald Trump: FIFA President Gianni Infantino.
During the draw, the Valais native unceremoniously honored Trump with the new "Peace Prize" from football's world governing body - presumably in response to his exclusion from the Nobel Peace Prize. Infantino praised Trump for his "unwavering commitment to peace around the world".
Critics had accused Infantino of having created the award especially for Trump. There was no transparent procedure, no nominees, no jury, and was apparently also new to the FIFA Council, said the director of Human Rights Watch, Minky Worden, at a press conference held by various groups in Washington two days before the draw.
There was also criticism from the international press: "Gianni Infantino's humiliating behavior in front of Donald Trump is a new low," wrote the British newspaper "The Telegraph", for example.
