Fire disaster President of the State Council Reynard meets Italy's ambassador in Valais
Italian patients who were hospitalized in the Valais hospital after the fire in Crans-Montana will not have to pay anything. This was confirmed by the President of the State Council, Mathias Reynard, on Friday after a meeting with the Italian ambassador in Valais.
24.04.2026, 21:09
SDA
The President of the Valais cantonal government had already clarified this point in a telephone conversation with Ambassador Gian Lorenzo Cornado on Monday. The working meeting on Friday in Martigny, which had already been arranged weeks ago, now served to take stock of the Crans-Montana matter.
The meeting, which took place on Friday afternoon, lasted less than an hour. Shortly afterwards, the ambassador informed Italian news agencies that the talks had concerned the copies of invoices that the Valais hospital had sent to Italian families last week.
Uncertainty and outrage in Italy
The amounts for the treatment of three injured people on January 1 range from 17,000 to 66,800 francs. They caused great uncertainty among those affected and outrage in Italy.
Specifically, the three invoices were forwarded to the Gemeinsame Einrichtung KVG. Together with the Italian insurance companies and the responsible liaison offices, the latter is clarifying which costs will be covered by which insurance company.
The Italian families had already been informed in writing at the end of February to the beginning of March about the procedure in case they received invoices that they were not obliged to pay, the Valais Health Service clarified on Tuesday. Furthermore, the documents sent were merely copies for the information of those affected
A whole series of disagreements
The matter of the copies of invoices is not the first disagreement between Switzerland and Italy.
Rome recalled its ambassador on January 24 to express its disapproval of the Valais authorities' investigation into the fire disaster in Crans-Montana and in particular the release of the owner of the bar where the fire broke out, Jacques Moretti, on January 23.
In mid-February, the Italian and Valais law enforcement authorities finally agreed to cooperate more closely in order to clarify the details of the tragedy.
On 25 March, an Italian public prosecutor accompanied by investigators travelled to Valais for two days to familiarize himself with the investigation files.
The Italian ambassador finally returned to Switzerland on April 6 - with the declared aim of checking the effectiveness of the cooperation at close quarters.
41 people died in the fire at the "Le Constellation" bar on New Year's Eve and 115 were injured, some of them seriously. Six of the fatalities are from Italy and ten of the injured.
