Swiss Face Up To 3 Years In Prison For Violating Heating Rules

People in Switzerland who violate the country’s new heating rules which forbid setting the temperature above 19°C (66.2F) in the colder months will face up to three years in prison.

Yes, really.

Under the new rules, buildings that use gas heating systems are restricted to 19°C, while hot water can only be heated up to 60°C and radiant heaters are banned entirely.

It will also be forbidden to heat swimming polls and saunas.

Depending on the severity of the violation and the individual’s economic situation, fines will range from 30 to 3,000 Swiss francs ($30 to $3,050), while people could also be imprisoned for up to three years.

Utility companies and larger businesses would face even more severe penalties for breaking the energy rationing rules.

Despite the brazenly authoritarian restrictions, Economy Minister Guy Parmelin asserted, “We are not a police state,” although he acknowledged police would perform “spot checks” to try to catch violators.

Many would suggest this is just a taste of a dystopian ‘net zero’ future where people who defy climate change ‘energy lockdowns’ face arrest and prison time.

As we previously highlighted, numerous other European countries are introducing similar restrictions in the face of a worsening energy crisis following the shut down of the Nord Stream 1 pipeline.

In Spain, businesses that use air conditioning units to keep temperatures at anything below 27°C in summer or above 19°C in winter face onerous fines of up to €600,000 for “serious violations.”

As we highlighted yesterday, predicting that cost of living protests in the Czech Republic and Germany will spread around the continent, a prominent economist warned that European citizens are “mad with anger and it will worsen.”

French economist Charles Gave said many more people aren’t buying the narrative that Vladimir Putin is solely to blame for the crisis.