expats since 2008. In 2015, former ambassador Tim Guldimann, who lives in Berlin, became the first expatriate to be voted into parliament. The state covered his travel costs. Swiss Abroad are now a political factor in their own right. Well over 800,000 Swiss live abroad. If they were a canton, they would be Switzerland’s fourth most populous. Around 220,000 expatriates are entered on the political register and take part in elections and votes. Many of these people have left the country temporarily and will return to Switzerland at some stage. Budget airlines and the internet have very much changed the face of emigration. “Instead of emigration, it makes more sense to talk of international mobility,” says Rudolf Wyder, who was the director of the OSA for many years. The 1966 constitutional article put Switzerland’s relationship with its diaspora on a solid foundation. The Swiss Abroad Act then came into force in 2015, setting out this relationship as a piece of legislation. Expatriates are no longer regarded as suspect but as valued members of the Swiss population. The federal government subsidises Swiss schools abroad, runs an online desk for expatriates, manages the SWI swissinfo.ch platform, compiles dedicated Swiss Abroad statistics, and provides other services related to emigration and repatriation. More has to be done, says Wyder. “We still need government to formulate a coherent Swiss Abroad policy that genuinely recognises the potential of our diaspora.” Other countries like Ireland and Singapore have their own diaspora ministers. This and other innovations have also been theoretically possible in Switzerland since 1966. Translated excerpt from the book “Heute Abstimmung! 30 Volksabstimmungen, die die Schweiz verändert haben” Meimuna is a gentle voice in an uncertain world Valais artist Cyrielle Formaz, otherwise known as Meimuna, released her first LP album in late 2024. “c’est demain que je meurs” (“Tomorrow is the day I die”) features nostalgia, scars and rebirth. Meimuna sings of her native Valais, its conservative nature, but also its untamed beauty. When on tour in France at the beginning of this year, she shared the stage with another musician, guitarist Claire Moreau, to present her first album: “c’est demain que je meurs”. This up close and personal approach suits singer and guitarist Cyrielle Formaz well, as she is used to her fans coming up to speak to her after her concerts. “These people have known me for years. They say my songs are about them, even though they are about me. It’s the whole world at a personal level,” she says over the phone during her tour, which also spanned Germany, Austria and Switzerland. She takes delight in the almost surprising fact that, in a world where “people are absorbed by screens”, there are still enough people who come to see someone performing live. “It’s almost a militant gesture,” she says with amusement, in her trademark perky, flute-like voice. Which words define her approach to music the best? “Melancholy, nostalgia and hope,” Meimuna replies, keen to point out that she hopes her songs will comfort those who listen to them. “c’est demain que je meurs”, released in October 2024, is the artist’s first LP album, even though Meimuna has been performing for ten years now. The arrangements are crisp, always giving pride of place to the guitar, an instrument that Formaz plays with an assurance born of her classical training. The singer, aged 30, performs her songs solo, with just the six strings of her guitar for company, as she did in a video published on YouTube where she rattles off several numbers without batting an eyelid. She is a well-rounded artist and is involved in every creative aspect of her world: composition, recording, mixing and graphic design. We nodded along and tapped our feet as we listened to “tomber du haut” (“Falling from a height”), a catchy track from her latest album. It is structured around a guitar picking arpeggio that is taken up by machines and looped, accompanied by drums and a bassline. The melody is irresistible. The chorus has all the makings of a hit. The lyrics are sensual and poetic. Formaz, an illustrator by training, designed the brilliantly inventive and simple music video for this song herself. It shows her singing and dancing against a background of off-white sketch paper, before transforming into an eye and then into a bird. “I did 3,000 drawings; it took me three months,” says the singer, born in the village of Orsières. “Je ne serai pas l’otage / De mes histoires / Il n’est jamais trop tard / Pour tomber de haut / Souffler sur ma peau / Repartir à zero”, (“I won’t be held hostage/By my past/It’s never too late/To fall from a height/Blow on my skin/Start MEIMUNA: “c’est demain que je meurs” 2024, Radicalis Musics Swiss Review / April 2025 / No.2 22 Books Sounds
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