1.59pm on Friday 9 January 2026: all of Switzerland, on the day of national mourning, stopped for a minute of silence to remember the 40 victims (six Italians), and the 116 injured, of the devastating New Year’s Eve fire at the ‘Le Constellation’ bar in Crans-Montana, the world-famous tourist and ski resort in the Canton of Valais.
Zurich airport stopped, trains and stations too, flags at half-mast and mourning stripes, all services stopped for sixty seconds. Hundreds of people gathered under the snow in Crans, a town still shaken by the tragedy of nine days ago, and in Adelboden in the Canton of Bern, where the collateral program of the traditional men’s Alpine Skiing World Cup was cancelled.
The symbolic gesture of the forty roses
The moment was touching when Azeddine Mekrabech, a thirty-year-old from Lyon, went to Crans-Montana in the snow to lay 40 white roses outside the restaurant that had gone up in flames. “I brought with me 40 roses, one for each victim,” he said, a stone’s throw from the igloo-shaped tarpaulins covering the pile of flowers, teddy bears and lit candles.
Investigations and arrests
The church bells rang for five minutes while the commemorative ceremony began at the Martigny Exhibition and Congress Center (Cerm) and the first interrogation of the owners of ‘Le Constellation’ took place in Sion.
At the end of more than six and a half hours of questions, the prosecutor Beatrice Pilloud proceeded to arrest Jacques Moretti, deeming the danger of flight “concrete”, “taking into account his declarations, his life path and his situation in Switzerland and abroad”.
His wife, Jessica Maric, was placed under house arrest with an electronic bracelet and the obligation to sign once a day at the police offices. This is a provision developed as she is the mother of a young son. «My thoughts are always constant, aimed at the victims and the people who are fighting between life and death today: it is an unimaginable tragedy and we could never have imagined that this could occur in one of our premises and I want to apologize», were the words of Jessica Maric as she left the Prosecutor’s Office.
International commemoration
Italy was also present in Martigny with the President of the Republic Sergio Mattarella. The Head of State landed with the presidential Airbus 319 at Kloten airport to visit the families of two young Italians hospitalized in a hospital in Zurich, then went to the location of the ceremony.
Also arriving at the CERM were the President of the European Parliament, Roberta Metsola, the French President Emmanuel Macron, the Grand Duke Henri of Luxembourg and the Swiss authorities led by the President of the Confederation, Guy Parmelin, and by Mathias Reynard, President of the Council of State of the Canton of Valais.
The tribute to the rescuers and the words of the President
Inside the ‘Le Règent’ centre, among the approximately one thousand guests, there were also approximately forty firefighters and rescue workers who had initially provided aid to the victims of the devastating fire: for them a standing ovation lasted several minutes.
To open the ceremony, Beatrice Berrut played an “Adagietto” from Mahler’s Fifth Symphony on a black grand piano. «We will never forget January 1, 2026. The beginning of 2026 was supposed to be marked by promises that fly towards the blue for youth and instead they caught fire in the ashes of a night of horror”, said the President of the Confederation, Parmelin, during his speech.
“The mourning that has struck us has transformed Switzerland into a single family, our country bows its head as a sign of respect for the memory of those who are no longer with us and stands alongside those who face a long journey of recovery”, added the Swiss President who underlined that every effort will be made to bring out the truth, “a moral imperative and also a duty of the State”.
Referring to the bar’s name being named after a constellation of stars, Parmelin concluded, “now they will continue to shine in our memories.”
Testimonies from survivors
Three young people present at the New Year’s Eve tragedy, with their voices broken by pain and with great emotion, spoke: «it is with great emotion that we speak here, that evening we went to the bar for a last drink, then it turned into a nightmare, the scenes in front of us were unbearable and outside it was worse than a nightmare, piercing screams echoed in the freezing cold: the smell of burning was unbearable». At the end of the commemorative ceremony the authorities placed a rose on the memorial set up in the hall.