New Year's Eve Massacre

The Swiss government will pay 55,000 euro to each victim of the Crans-Montana fire

The government has announced that it will make a one-off payment to the severely injured survivors and bereaved families of the 'Le Constellation' bar fire on New Year's Eve in Crans-Montana

25 February 2026aggiornato alle 14:01

epa12737583 Una persona in lutto depone dei fiori davanti al bar "Le Constellation" a Crans-Montana per commemorare le vittime del mortale incendio che ha colpito il locale, Crans-Montana, Svizzera, 14 febbraio 2026. EPA/ALESSANDRO DELLA VALLE

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Foundation for Crans victims, Italy representative missing

2' min read

Translated by AI

Versione italiana

The Swiss government announced today, 25 February, that it will make a one-off payment of 50,000 Swiss francs (approx. 54,575 euro at the exchange rate of 25 February 2026) to the seriously injured survivors and bereaved families of the New Year's Eve 'Le Constellation' bar fire in the Crans-Montana ski resort, in which 41 people died and 116 were seriously injured.

The so-called solidarity contribution aims to provide rapid financial support to victims and act as a gesture of compassion, said the Swiss Federal Council. It said it would also convene a round table to help victims, insurers and authorities reach out-of-court settlements, potentially avoiding lengthy legal battles.

The aim is to contribute a maximum of CHF 20 million to these agreements.

The Federal Council said it hoped that parliament would quickly expedite the legislation drafted to help the victims.

The government also intends to allocate CHF 8.5 million to help the affected cantons cover extraordinary costs.

The government stated that it had taken measures following the analysis conducted by the Federal Office of Justice, which found shortcomings in the existing support systems, which were mainly designed for individual cases and to cope with large-scale disasters.

Foundation for Crans victims, Italy representative missing

Announced in recent weeks, the foundation for the fund-raising for the victims of the Constellation fire in Crans-Montana on 24 February 2025 was officially established by the government of the canton of Valais.

The Beloved Foundation, this is the name, will have an initial budget of one million francs, but to date pledges of donations amount to some 17 million francs.

It will be chaired by Doris Leuthard, former President of the Swiss Confederation, with a board of directors on which, among others, the donors' representative and those of the families of the Swiss and French victims will sit. Italy's delegate is currently missing, whose nomination 'procedures are currently underway', explains a note from the executive.

'The creation of the foundation,' the Valais government points out, 'responds to the important outpouring of solidarity shown in the aftermath of the tragedy and the need to mitigate the financial consequences for the victims and their families as much as possible, since the legal process for liability issues is likely to take some time.

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