Switzerland is preparing this Friday to pay tribute at the highest level to the victims of a New Year's Eve fire in a bar in the Alpine resort of Crans-Montana, in which forty young people died and 116 were injured, the majority seriously. The ceremony, which will include a minute of silence nationwide and the ringing of church bells at 2:00 PM, will be attended by the families and loved ones of the victims, as well as members of the federal government; French President Emmanuel Macron and Italian President Sergio Mattarella. The French and Italians are the national groups with the most victims, after the Swiss, who account for half of the dead and a sixth of all the injured. Among the fatal victims, there are seven French and six Italians, while among the injured there are 21 French nationals and ten Italians. Both countries, as well as Germany, offered help to Switzerland and received nearly fifty severely burned individuals for treatment in highly specialized medical services. Swiss President Guy Parmelin and several ministers will attend the ceremony, as well as the authorities of the canton of Valais, to which Crans-Montana belongs, in addition to 37 foreign delegations invited to represent all the countries of origin of the victims, as well as countries that provided some form of assistance in the face of the magnitude of this tragedy. The ceremony will take place in the town of Martigny, about an hour from Crans-Montana, where weather conditions are difficult this week due to a snowstorm hitting the region, so the authorities decided to hold the event in a more accessible location. Only those who have received an invitation will be able to attend. Journalists will be able to follow it from a press center installed a few steps away, where authorities who wish can make subsequent public statements. Several Swiss cities, such as Geneva, Lausanne, or Zurich, as well as schools and institutes, are organizing parallel tributes.
