With some 320,000 fallout shelters (locally known as “PC shelters” for civil protection) and coverage that exceeds 100% of its population, Switzerland is the world champion in bunkers. Since 1963, the law states that “Each inhabitant must have a protected place in a shelter located near his place of residence”. In practice, each new house built must be equipped with a standard place – armored door, ventilation system – where to take refuge in the event of war or other disaster. This is called the“vertical drain” : only option deemed viable for this small landlocked and mountainous country.
“In 1956, the Federal Council considered the advent of a third world war as “very probable”. At the time, a slogan from the authorities read: “We can survive nuclear war.” There was this kind of technocratic faith in the ability to be saved by design. » Silvia Berger Ziauddin, historian
While, until February, the prospects of nuclear war seemed like something in the history books, the Swiss shelters were more of a joke. But the resurgence of the nuclear threat has transformed everyone’s idea of their own security. During the first weeks of the war in Ukraine, the civil protection of the various cantons was bombarded with telephone calls – up to a hundred a day in the canton of Vaud.
“Some were worried about whether the shelters would be open to cross-border commuters and tourists, remembers Laurent Paoliello, from the department of security, population and health of the canton of Geneva. We even got a few insults. But if there is a bombardment, we are not going to ask for everyone’s papers, we are going to stuff the shelters. »
Applications for iodine tablets first “significantly increased” in pharmacies and with the authorities, before returning today to normal. Always far-sighted, the Federal Office of Public Health (OFSP) assures, in an e-mail to M The magazine of the World, that “pills are available for the whole population” : stored in the cantons, “they can be distributed within twelve hours”.
A huge budget
In the 1960s, other countries, such as West Germany or the United States, debated at the top of the state the interest of building fallout shelters. Without taking action. Switzerland is getting started. Historically, this country of tunnels sees its basement as a protective space. “In 1956, the Federal Council considered the advent of a third world war as “very probable”, recalls the historian Silvia Berger Ziauddin. At the time, a slogan from the authorities read: “We can survive nuclear war.” There was this kind of technocratic faith in the ability to be saved by design. »
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