Poor in rich Switzerland (People 2025, by Klaus Petrus) - Swiss Press Award
Klaus Petrus
T.R., Basel, 62, ehemals ein erfolgreicher Unternehmer, verschuldete er sich und sank immer tiefer. «Früher, als Geschäftsmann, würde ich dauernd irgendwo eingeladen, und dann war ich plötzlich ein niemand. Ich begann zu trinken und vereinsamte.» 26.06.2024
Surprise 585/24
Photo / People
2025
Klaus Petrus
700,000 people are poor in this country, and 1.3 million are considered at risk of poverty. It's almost always the same people who are affected: single women, the long-term unemployed, the elderly, migrants—and young people—in Switzerland alone, there are 140,000 of them. They are referred to in the abstract as "people affected by poverty"—but as people, they often don't even appear, they exist on the margins, invisible.
