Portuguese-Swiss relations

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Portuguese-Swiss relations
Location of Portugal and Switzerland
PortugalPortugal SwitzerlandSwitzerland
Portugal Switzerland

The Portuguese-Swiss relations describe the intergovernmental relationship between Portugal and Switzerland . The countries have traditionally enjoyed smooth relations. After the Portuguese recognition of Swiss neutrality in 1815, regular diplomatic relations began between the two countries, which were regulated in a bilateral agreement in 1883.

Around 270,000 Portuguese live in Switzerland, making them the third largest group of foreigners in the country. Almost 3,500 Swiss people live in Portugal, around half of whom are Portuguese-Swiss dual citizens.

history

Paracelsus is considered the first Swiss in Portugal

Paracelsus ' visit to Portugal in 1515 is regarded as the first modern contact between the two countries. Later, the Basel naturalist Leonhard Thurneysen stayed in Portugal in 1555 and 1556.

More and more Swiss people came to Portugal in the 18th century, particularly business people like the court banker David de Pury , who settled there in 1736.

During the Seven Years War from 1762 to 1763 Swiss troops were also in Portuguese service . Their service ended ingloriously, however, and they were dismissed from service after gross indiscipline such as embezzlement and desertion .

Portugal recognized Switzerland's neutrality in 1815, after which both countries established diplomatic relations, which they enshrined in an agreement in 1883.

During the Second World War (1939–1945) both countries remained neutral and were equally refuge for refugees.

In 1959 Portugal and Switzerland upgraded their mutual representations to full embassies. With the membership of both countries in the European Free Trade Association (EFTA) from 1960, bilateral relations deepened further. During the Portuguese colonial war , Switzerland represented the interests of Portugal in Senegal between 1963 and 1975 .

After the Carnation Revolution in 1974 and the subsequent return to democracy in Portugal, official visits between Portuguese and Swiss officials became more numerous from 1977 onwards. Federal President Micheline Calmy-Rey last traveled to Portugal in 2007, while President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa last came to Switzerland in 2016.

diplomacy

The Portuguese Consulate in Geneva

The first Swiss consulate was opened in Lisbon in 1817. In 1936 Switzerland set up a diplomatic office in Lisbon, which in 1959 became the Swiss Embassy in Portugal. Today she sits in Lisbon's Travessa do Jardim No. 17. There is also a Swiss consulate in Porto .

Portugal opened its first consulate in Switzerland in 1855 in Geneva . In 1892 a diplomatic legation followed in Bern , which in 1959 became the Portuguese embassy in Switzerland. It is domiciled at Weltpoststrasse 20. Portugal also has two consulates general in Geneva and Zurich and two consular offices in Lugano and Sion .

Town twinning

So far, two Portuguese and Swiss municipalities have either entered into city and municipality friendships or are striving to do so:

economy

Car transport by the Portuguese railways : Even before Portuguese wine, motor vehicles are Portugal's most important single export to Switzerland.

The Portuguese Chamber of Commerce and Industry AICEP has an office in Zurich, while the Swiss-Portuguese Chamber of Commerce and Industry is based in Lisbon. The bilateral trade relations are also shaped by the 270,000 Portuguese in Switzerland and the approximately 250,000 Swiss tourists in Portugal every year. Portugal ranks 13th among the Swiss trading partners and Switzerland 18th among the Portuguese trading partners.

In 2015, Portugal exported goods and services worth 1,513 million euros to Switzerland (2014: 1,578 million euros, 2013: 1,265 million euros, 2012: 1,083 million euros, 2011: 478 million euros), of which 12 6% food, 11.4% machines and devices, 8.9% vehicles and vehicle parts and 8.2% optical and precision instruments.

In the same period, Switzerland exported goods and services worth EUR 641.6 million to Portugal (2014: EUR 653.6 million, 2013: EUR 615.4 million, 2012: EUR 664.3 million, 2011: 710 , 7 million euros), thereof 66.5% chemical-pharmaceutical products, 13.4% machines and devices, 8.5% optical and precision instruments and 2.1% metals.

The two countries concluded a double taxation agreement in 1974 and last updated it with an amending protocol in October 2013.

Culture

Institutions

The Portuguese cultural institute Instituto Camões maintains various institutions in Bern, Vevey, Geneva and Zurich, but no language or cultural institute.

literature

One of the greatest Swiss literary successes of recent times, the world success Night Train to Lisbon by the Swiss Pascal Mercier , is about a teacher from Bern who abruptly changes his life and sets off to Lisbon in the footsteps of an unknown Portuguese author.

The Swiss Ammann Verlag has published several new German-language translations of the most important works of Portugal's most important modern writer, Fernando Pessoa .

Alain Tanner (1993)

Movie

Various films were also made in Swiss-Portuguese co-productions, for example the film adaptation of the book “ Night Train to Lisbon ” in 2013 or “ The Weaknesses of Women ” by the Portuguese director Luís Galvão Teles in 1997 . In 2013 the film “ Big Waves ” ( Les grandes ondes (à l'ouest) ) by the Swiss director Lionel Baier was released . The comedy drama tells the story of an SSR reporting team that was surprised by the Carnation Revolution in Portugal in 1974 .

Some works by the Portuguese Manoel de Oliveira , the old master of European auteur films , were also made in a Portuguese-Swiss co-production, such as “ Am Ufer des Flusses ” (1993).

The Swiss director Alain Tanner made a film about Lisbon with the award-winning work “ In der Weissen Stadt ” in 1983, to which he returned in 1998 with his film adaptation of Antonio Tabucchi's book Lisbon Requiem . A German-Swiss film from the Dudu series in Portugal was made in 1972 with “ A Beetle Goes Full Throttle ” , which is just as much a lighter film genre as the German-Swiss production “ Love letters from a Portuguese nun ” from 1977.

The short actor, extra and show animator Sam Jimmyjoe , known in Switzerland, was born in Switzerland in 1989. In 2014 SRF television showed the documentary "Jimmyjoe - Wo chunsch du här, wo geisch du hi", which portrayed the actor.

Sports

Soccer

José Gonçalves (2008)

The Portuguese national soccer team and the Swiss national soccer team have competed against each other 21 times (as of January 2017), with ten Swiss wins, six Portuguese wins and five draws. They first met in Italy in 1938. In the game for the World Cup qualification in 1938 , Switzerland won 2-1, so that Portugal did not qualify for the World Cup. With the 3-0 victory in the friendly match in Lisbon on January 1, 1942, the Portuguese achieved their highest victory to date against Switzerland, which in turn achieved the 2-0 qualification for the 2018 World Cup on September 6, 2016 in Basel as their highest victory Portugal listed.

A number of football players are equally connected to Portugal and Switzerland, such as José Gonçalves, who was born in Portugal and grew up in Switzerland, with Cape Verdean roots, the youth national goalkeeper Joel Pereira , born in Le Locle , Switzerland , or the Portuguese-Swiss, born in Crissier , Switzerland Soccer player Paulo Diogo . The Portuguese-born João Oliveira and Pedro Teixeira , who were also born in Switzerland, have played for the Swiss national team since they were young, while Pedro Mendes, also born in Switzerland, competes for Portugal.

Other

Portugal's roller hockey team at the 2007 World Cup in Montreux

The Portuguese racing cyclist José Bento Pessoa also defeated the then Swiss racing idol Théodore Champion when he was defending his world title in the 500 meter discipline on April 10, 1898 at the Geneva-Jonction cycle track.

At the roller hockey world championship 2007 in Montreux , Portugal did not make it into the last four. This happened here for the first and so far only time since the first World Cup in 1936. In the ten world championships so far held in Portugal, the Swiss selection also failed to rank among the last four.

See also

Web links

Commons : Portuguese-Swiss relations  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f page of the Swiss Foreign Ministry on relations with Portugal , accessed on January 19, 2017.
  2. ↑ Presidente Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa discursou no Parlamento Suíço - "President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa spoke in the Swiss Parliament" , article from October 17, 2016 on the website of the Portuguese President's Office, accessed on January 21, 2017.
  3. ↑ Swiss diplomatic missions in Portugal , website of the Swiss Foreign Ministry, accessed on January 19, 2017.
  4. ↑ List of consular representations of Portuguese-speaking countries in Switzerland , accessed on January 21, 2017.
  5. ↑ List of Portuguese-Swiss town twinning at the Association of Portuguese Administrative Districts (ANMP), accessed on May 16, 2020
  6. ↑ International trade in Portugal , Excel file retrieval from the Portuguese Chamber of Commerce AICEP , accessed on January 21, 2017.
  7. ↑ a b Bilateral economic relations between Portugal and Switzerland , Excel file retrieval from the Portuguese Chamber of Commerce AICEP, accessed on January 21, 2017.
  8. ↑ Overview of the activities of the Instituto Camões in Switzerland , accessed on January 21, 2017.
  9. ↑ Entry on José Bento Pessoa at the Portuguese Cycling Federation , accessed on January 26, 2017.