This Swiss makes fireworks and fears for the future

The ban on noisy fireworks has a good chance of being accepted by the Swiss people. Parliament now wishes to present a counter-project. Manufacturers fear for their survival.

Michael Graber / ch media

The season is launched for Daniel Bussmann. He owns and directs Bugano, The largest manufacturer of fireworks in Switzerland. On August 1, with him, and with him, his usual flow of rockets, vesories and other fireworks. In recent years, these objects nevertheless arouse a heated debate. They are sometimes deemed too noisy, too polluting, modeled.

So much so that some even wanted to prohibit them. Consequence: the initiative on fireworks is currently under discussion in Parliament. The National Council commission is working on a counter-project mainly aimed at private use and emphasizing “pyrotechnic articles for recreational use which generate excessive noise”.

Because specialists in the field fear a general ban. Indeed, several polls have given a large lead to the initiative. In the bourgeois camp, many refuse a fundamental restriction and count on the counter-project to find a compromise.

But the initiative on fireworks already weighs heavily on Bugano’s affairs. Even if it does not yet have a significant impact on turnover, it leads to at least a decrease in the number of points of sale, notes Daniel Bussmann. Several municipalities have already taken the lead and enacted their own prohibitions.

Too much effort just for vesses

The director says that a word implementation for the word of the initiative would inevitably lead to the death of his business. We could certainly still get veesions, “but it is illusory to think that these and the Bengal lights will be enough to save the activity”. They would not justify the production costs or the sales stands, regrets Daniel Bussmann. He explains:

He emphasizes that many rules already exist. For example, firecrackers are prohibited in Switzerland. “They can be really dangerous,” said the Bugano manager. He fears that in the event of a prohibition of sale on the territory, consumers turn abroad to buy prohibited items. “With considerable risks”.

Daniel Bussman, director of Bugano. dr

The entrepreneur does not fundamentally oppose certain restrictions and prohibitions in this area:

This concerns in particular the quantity of fireworks can be drawn outside August 1 and from the New Year. While certain municipalities must give their green light for each wedding fireworks, others authorize them without condition.

An annual contingent of fireworks?

Daniel Bussmann plans for example an annual quota of fireworks authorized by municipality. He quotes the example of Eich (read), which tolerates a maximum of ten. And argues if not for “the sense of measurement and common sense”. The fans that turn on their rockets several days before the national holiday annoy him:

Here are veesions.Keystone

He recognizes that the current debate causes him some stomach cramps. Everyone camps on their positions. Bussmann also criticizes “anti-fires” for not telling the whole truth:

The initiative certainly leaves a door open to demonstrations of supragional importance, but this notion is defined in a “very vague” manner.

While the fireworks remain on the defensive, the initiators go to the offensive just in time for the national holiday. With an advertising campaign in which animals clog their ears.

According to them, the screw should be tightened for private fireworks. Especially because of their impact on the environment and animals. This now requires “consideration rather than rockets”.

Adaptation in French by Valentine Zenker

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A 59-year-old man died on Monday morning during a work accident in a company in Châtel-St-Denis (FR). An investigation was opened to determine the exact circumstances.