Gontard case friction easing with Swiss, Colombian cooperation; $27 billion victim compensation programme high on Colombian gov’t agenda
Vice President Angelino Garzon listens to questions during a sit-down meeting with the press in Geneva
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch.com) – “Our goal is that in 15 years, lands can be given back to the farmers exiled from their homes and that social programmes will be in place to help them,” Vice-president Angelino Garzon of Colombia told GenevaLunch during a visit to Geneva Thursday 14 October.
The second highest representative of the new Colombian government elected earlier this year, was in Geneva furthering his government’s agenda with the Swiss government, the United Nations and international organizations.
One of the most-talked about topics on his agenda was the “victim compensation programme” that seeks to give land back to the hundreds of thousands of people displaced by violence in Colombia. The UNHCR estimates that over 3 million people have been internally displaced, which is why land restitution is a top priority for the government.
The $27 billion dollar programme has already put 200,000 hectares in the State’s hands. “We are seeking to confiscate an additional 600,000 hectares from armed groups operating illegally in the country,” he added.
Although the long-awaited plan may still be far in the future, Garzon believes that in Colombia the “political will to make this a priority is on everyone’s agenda.”
Implementing a broad land restitution programme with deep pockets may be viewed with distrust in a country where government agricultural subsidies that were geared to fostering peasant land productivity became linked, in some cases, to shady deals for the rich.
Garzon thinks things will be different now. “The government is counting on additional laws to ensure that [once approved] the programme works well,” he says.
“Priority will be given to women who are heads of households, orphans, people with disabilities and the elderly.”
Colombia to “respect the judicial system” over Gontard affair, bilateral talks to start in January Read more…
Moritz Leuenberger sooner-than-anticipated departure will allow parliament to vote at once for two new cabinet ministers
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch.com) – Swiss Federal Councillor Moritz Leuenberger (above right), current Minister of Transport, Communications, Energy and Environment, is bringing forward his departure date from the Federal Council, from December to October, to allow parliament to vote for two new ministers at once.
The announcement came in on 9 August just days after Federal Councillor Hans-Rudolf Merz, Minister of Finance (above left), announced he would leave his post in October.
Leuenberger, 63, a Socialist Party member, had originally announced that he would step down in December. The Minister had wanted to stay until the end of the year to see the completion of the digging of the Gotthard Tunnel and to attend the next UN climate change conference in Mexico. The exact date of departure will be announced next week during a cabinet meeting.
The cabinet elections by parliament will take place 22 September.
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Le Temps, the main newspaper for intellectuals in French-speaking Switzerland, is calling for reforms to the way the Swiss Federal Council works, in the wake of a series of international crises.
Le Temps is harshly critical Wednesday morning 10 February in an editorial that calls for the whole “collegial” approach to government to be re-thought. The Swiss government consists of seven federal councilors from five parties, approved by Parliament, who work behind closed doors. They reach decisions that are then supported publicly by the group, which speaks with one voice.
But Le Temps argues that the group has been too much influenced by the members’ parties since the days when Christoph Blocher ruled the right-wing UDC, and that it is increasingly difficult for the Council to make decisions quickly, after adequate reflection. The councilors are also overloaded with work as ministers in charge of government offices, departments and ministries, says the Geneva-based newspaper. In a related article Le Temps points to the slowness of the council in making decisions about banks and double taxation agreements, but most importantly a lack of clear communication and strategy as evidence that reform is needed.
Thomas Held, director of the think tank Avenir Suisse, says in an interview that is part of Le Temps’s package of articles that the government is being overtaken by events and is not guiding reactions as it should, as a result.
Didier Burkhalter, Neuchatel, new Swiss cabinet member
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Didier Burkhalter, 49, a Radical party (centre-right) politician from Neuchatel, was elected by the Swiss parliament to the country’s seven-member Federal Council (cabinet) with 129 votes against 106 for the other candidate, Urs Schwaller, PDC (also centre), on the fourth round of voting. He succeeds Pascal Couchepin, from canton Valais, who is retiring 1 November. Burkhalter’s election means his party will retain its seat on the council and the balance remains unchanged in the power-sharing Swiss government. The language balance remains intact as well, with one French-speaking canton representative replaced by another.
Details: Swissinfo and on radio, WRS. Swiss French media: Le Temps, Tribune de Geneve/24 Heures, TSR
Background story, GenevaLunch
Lausanne, Switzerland (l’Hebdo, Fre) - L’Hebdo news magazine this week carries an analysis of the financial crisis and how it is affecting Switzerland: the political world, long “lethargic,” is slowly waking up to a ticking time-bomb.
André Bugnon, president of the Swiss Conseil national, at home in Saint Prex, Vaud
St Prex, Vaud, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The big news of the day Wednesday, in Swiss politics, was the defeat of Christophe Blocher, the outspoken UDC (right-wing People’s Party) cabinet member who has made headlines for months. The federal council elections appear to be a clear victory for the parties of the centre and left, which cobbled together a plan to evict Blocher. To those outside Switzerland it might appear that the popularity of the UDC at the polls was an illusion. Not so.
It would be easy to lose sight, in the excitement of the moment, of the fact that the woman elected in his place, Evelyn Widmer-Schlump, is also a UDC politician, from Graubunden. And overseeing the election, the man who announced the votes and called the group to order, was André Bugnon, president of the Conseil national, the lower house of Parliament. Bugnon, too, is a UDC party member, and he is quick to point out that his party won some 33% of the vote, far more than any other party, in the October popular elections to Parliament.
Bugnon is the former mayor of Saint Prex in Vaud. For nearly 10 years after that he was active in cantonal politics. He is a congenial man, a vigneron who is used to running a successful medium-sized business. His years in office in St Prex saw the population grow, services improve and the quality of life improve in general. He oversaw the transformation of a charming old village into a small modern Swiss town with a balance between industry old and new, agriculture and commuters who work in nearby cities. In short, he has a good reputation even among those who don’t agree with his politics.
Main street, St Prex
Bugnon is what many Swiss might consider a more acceptable face of the UDC, a hard-working congenial man much like themselves, who has a bent for law and order but also a strong desire to help those who are less privileged. He believes the latter is best achieved by making sure the rules are fair and that they are then respected. He grew up on the family farm, learning the wine business from his father and speaking Spanish at an early age because the farmhands and their families were Spanish. The family memory for those who fled a major famine in the country in the 1850s remains strong. There are Bugnons in Argentina today, and when the "National" president visited distant cousins there a few years ago he was pleased that he could speak Spanish with them.
In an interview with GenevaLunch shortly before the Federal Council election he talked about what the UDC means to him, what he believes it represents, and why outsiders need to go beyond headlines about posters with black and white sheep. He had just returned from a busy day in Bern, following a large celebration in the middle of the week. The family has a typical Vaud farm at the edge of Saint Prex, with a barn and houses occupied by different parts of the family. He discussed pruning trees for a minute with one relative while a grandchild and the large family dog played nearby.
In the house we sat down at the kitchen table as dusk fell. Bugnon looked tired, but graciously made coffee and hunted for sugar in the family’s kitchen. A picture window gave a view of the French Alps that is remarkably similar to the one painted by Ferdinand Hodler, which recently sold for several million francs, a record. Bugnon warmed up to a discussion of where Hodler might have painted it from, waxing enthusiastic as he pointed out the Dents du Midi’s jagged peaks and Napolean’s three-cornered hat and sharp nose, part of the Alps in the foreground.
He served himself a bottle of water and settled in to talk. His politics are UDC, no question about that.
"The UDC is not a party of racists, or xenophobic, no more so than the other parties," he argues with passion. "We represent 33% of the vote and with that number I think you have to ask why." The answer, he is convinced, is that the UDC’s political line running up to October parliamentary elections, was clear, whereas the other parties had no strong platforms. The Swiss were tired of seeing abuses, particularly by people seeking disability insurance and politicial asylum. "It’s not normal for some people to be allowed to take advantage of the system and we came down hard on abuses. For too long, Switzerland had been too lax."
