Did the headlines from Washington ruin your beach mood? That’s understandable, but not very helpful. Instead of getting frustrated, it’s better to make the most of your last vacation days — for example, by studying the politics of your host country. This is especially true for two popular travel destinations: Spain and Italy.
These two destinations were recently ranked by The Economist among the five most successful OECD countries. Surprising? Certainly. But also an inspiration for home: if even Southern Europe can show how modernization works, Switzerland can revive its pioneering spirit as well.
More than burrata and bureaucracy
As popular as Italy is for its cuisine, it is often seen politically as a negative example. Corruption, bureaucracy, and the mafia shape this perception. Yet the country has improved in some areas—for instance, crime. In the early 1990s, the murder rate was nearly twice as high as in Switzerland. Today, it stands on par at 0.6 intentional homicides per 100,000 inhabitants—and Italy has long surpassed Germany in this statistic.
Of course, a single statistic does not make a prosperous country. Italy continues to struggle with structural problems and high youth unemployment. Yet there has been progress in economic policy as well, for example in pensions. In 2011, Italy passed the so-called “Fornero Reform”, raising the retirement age to 67 and tightening its link to life expectancy. With this, our southern neighbor has placed its pension system on a more sustainable foundation.
In Switzerland, by contrast, the pension system has a sustainability gap of 177 percent of GDP, according to UBS. This underfunding is high by international standards and puts the otherwise low national debt into perspective. Yet instead of sustainable reforms, Switzerland saw the introduction of the 13th OASI pension. On certain issues, we can learn from Italy not just in the kitchen, but also in the Federal Palace.
Fast progress thanks to competition
Spain has also recently gained momentum—literally. Those who spent their summer holidays there may have taken the train from Barcelona to Madrid. By car, this 620-kilometer journey takes over six hours, but with the new high-speed trains, it takes only two and a half hours. And the trip is punctual, comfortable, and affordable.
This is due in no small part to the dynamics of competition. Liberalization has led to three train operators competing in Spain today: the state-owned Renfe, as well as Ouigo and Iryo. The result: on liberalized high-speed routes, prices dropped, the service offering increased, and the trains gained ten million additional passengers in just two and a half years.
And in Switzerland? The country has always been proud of the SBB. Yet even with this “holy cow” of public transport, not everything is rosy. The SBB’s once-strong reputation has taken a hit: the new FV-Dosto train is now nicknamed the “shaker train,” and this procurement mistake has even led to negative reports from foreign train influencers.
So far, there have been no political consequences, at the expense of passengers and they still don’t have alternatives to the SBB monopoly. As a result, without competition, the effect is reversed: while prices in Spain have come under pressure, the opposite is true in Switzerland. Adjusted for inflation, train tickets between two Swiss cities have increased significantly over roughly ten years.
Tackling the modernization of the country
Of course, Spain and Italy still face major challenges. But they show that progress is possible even in difficult areas. Switzerland could take a cue from this. Much works well here and always has. But precisely because of that, overdue reforms seem to be postponed indefinitely—and not only in the areas of competition or pensions.
So if the “shaker train” jolts us awake on the way home from vacation, that might not be such a bad thing. Ideally, every ride on the misprocured SBB train reminds us that Switzerland, too, needs to keep moving. With a bit of perspective, this becomes clearer. Rather than coming back from vacation frustrated about Trump, bring home fresh ideas and energy —and use them to make our country a little better.
This article was published in the NZZ am Sonntag on August 10, 2025.
