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.
Background on local and national Swiss votes 29 November, GenevaLunch
Update 16:40 Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Swiss voters turned Sunday voted to ban the construction of new minarets in the country, with 57.5 percent of voters approving the initiative and 42.5 percent opposed to it. The vote went along language lines, with Swiss Germans voting for the ban and French speakers voting against, although cantons with both languages, such as Valais and Bern, voted soundly to support the ban.
The result is widely seen as a slap in the face to the government, which has strongly opposed the initiative. But it will also be read as a vote against the current situation of Muslims in Switzerland, say most Swiss media. On the one hand, approving the ban will send a signal that the Swiss are worried about “creeping Islamization”, a phrase that was used by the UDC (right-wing People’s Party) during the campaign, and on the other hand, a signal that Muslim ghettoes are not acceptable, reports Swissinfo. The Muslim population has increased by about 350,000 and is now around 4.5 percent of the Swiss population, according to Swissinfo.
Switzerland set to continue arms exports
Voters rejected by 68 percent, early results indicate, a popular initiative to stop Swiss arms exports.
Geneva says yes to Ceva regional transport, Vésenaz tunnel
The years of debate are over for Ceva, the regional transport system that would link Geneva to Annemasse. Voters approved by nearly 62 percent a CHF113 million credit that will allow the project to go ahead. They also approved the covered tunnel for Vésenaz.
Map of incoming results on TSR: “la carte”
Geneva elections, Socialists lose seat
Update 15:40 Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Cantonal elections in Geneva for the executive council, the Conseil d’état, confirmed a rightward shift in the political mood, Sunday 15 November. The centre-right alliance won four of the seven seats, while the centre-left won three. Two women are on the council, and extremists on either side of the spectrum were eliminated.
On the centre-right: the Radical party’s François Longchamp, Christian Democrat Pierre-François Unger and the Liberal party’s Mark Muller were re-elected. They were joined by newly elected Liberal Isabel Rochat.
Federal Councilor Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Switzerland’s Justice and Police minister Thursday called on voters to reject the anti-minaret proposal which will be put to them in a referendum 29 November, saying that it is unconstitutional and runs counter to Swiss values. Eveline Widmer Schlumpf told a press conference that the proposal, from the right-wing UDC of which she was once a member, does not respect Switzerland’s freedom of religious expression. She argues that this means not only that people are free to hold religious beliefs, but also to express them openly and publicly in appropriate places of worship.
Update 12:00 Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - The gray line between freedom of speech and racism continues to be toyed with by the Swiss right-wing UDC party while municipalities in Switzerland debate whether or not to stop the group’s campaign posters for an upcoming popular vote. The 26 November referendum with three items includes one to ban the construction of new minarets in the country. The proposal is widely expected to be defeated, based on recent polls, but it could be close.
Basel-City and Lausanne have refused permission for the posters to go up, while Geneva Wednesday afternoon 7 October decided to allow them. Several cities asked the Swiss Federal Commission Against Racism for an opinion, which it issued Wednesday afternoon 7 October. Since then Winterthur, Zurich and Lucerne have decided to allow the posters, but Fribourg has banned them.
Lausanne, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Switzerland’s right-wing UDC party is back in the news for its posters: Lausanne 7 October banned the party’s campaign posters that show a Swiss map crowded with minarets and a frowning, heavily veiled woman. The city says the posters are “racist, irrespectful and dangerous.” Basel-City also banned the posters Tuesday and Geneva will decide Wednesday. The Swiss will vote 29 November on a UDC-sponsored popular referendum to ban the construction of new minarets. Two of the six parties are in favour of it and the government is opposed.
The UDC (SVP in German; People’s Party) sparked a heated national debate and gained international attention in 2008 with posters showing several white sheep and a black one for a vote to send foreign criminals back to their home countries. In May 2009 the Swiss high court ruled in the party’s favour over another poster that showed Muslims prostrate in front of the Swiss federal palace in Bern.
Lausanne/Bex, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – A 20-year-old who was knifed in the heart Tuesday 1 September by two youths he didn’t know as he walked through Parc Montbenon in Lausanne, died Saturday of his injuries, Vaud police say. The 15- and 17-year-olds who killed him were caught near the train station shortly after the crime and told a judge they pulled a knife on him because they didn’t like the way he looked at them.
One of them had been charged in the past with attempted murder and spent time in a juvenile detention centre in the Jura, but he escaped in January 2009.
A second violent crime was committed by juveniles in Bex Sunday night, near the Vaud/Valais cantonal line, that sent a police officer to hospital with head, throat and knee injuries.
All four youths are of foreign nationality, from three countries, and none of them have permanent residence status. The crimes come at a time when Switzerland has been debating what to do with foreigners who have not become well integrated into Swiss society and who commit serious crimes.
Lausanne, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The Swiss federal high court has ruled that posters of Muslims prostrate in front of the Swiss federal palace, with the slogan “use your heads” is not racist. The court argued, with one judge noting reservations, that the posters do not fulfill legal requirements for racial discrimination.
Lausanne, Switzerland (20 Minutes, Fre) – The Swiss federal high court will review Monday 27 April charges of racism brought against the country’s right-wing UDC (People’s Party) political party for posters is distributed in canton Valais in 2007. The posters show prostate Muslims at the Swis Parliament building, shown from behind, with the slogan “use your heads, vote UDC.”
February 2009 poster, UDC/SVP for campaign to say no to Bulgarian, Romanian workers: the motion was defeated
Zurich, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - The right-wing UDC, known in German as the SVP (the Swiss People’s Party), is continuing its recent marketing tradition of provocative public campaigns: Saturday the party denounced the US and called on Switzerland to retaliate for the US announcement 19 February that it is taking UBS, the largest Swiss bank, to court. The news promptly moved to the top of the most popular list of articles on Reuters.
Vaud and Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The Swiss go to the polls this weekend to vote on one of the most critical foreign relations issues in recent years, a government-sponsored initiative to extend indefinitely the country’s six-year-old agreement with the European Union providing for the free movement of labour.
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Police in Geneva Thursday morning rounded up 26 Romanians who were begging in the streets, public radio RSR reports, in a sweep of the city that involved four police vans and 30 officers. The move was linked to the upcoming federal vote, 8 February, on extending the free movement of people to Romania and Bulgaria, in an effort to reduce a popular negative perception of traveling people, notably Roms, and some other groups from these countries. Also Thursday, the Federal Council in Bern issued an unusually strong statement against racist overtones in political advertising for the 8 February vote.
Updated 10:45 Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – TSR calls it the “smallest possible margin,” with right-wing UDC ex-president Ueli Maurer elected to the Swiss Federal Council by a hair, 122 of 243 votes, with one abstention, during a third rond of voting. The Wednesday morning election in Parliament of a new member of the Swiss cabinet, the seven-member Federal Council proved to be one of last-minute drama and political ploys.
Bern, Switzerland (TSR, Fre) – Christoph Blocher, former federal councilor, could be elected to the cabinet again if his right-wing UDC party’s discussions with parties of the centre go well, UDC leader Toni Brunner says.
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Samuel Schmid, one of Switzerland’s seven federal councilors, resigned Wednesday afternoon, citing health concerns and political pressure. Schmid, minister for Defense, Civil Protection and Sport, also noted that at age 62, after eight years as a cabinet member and a long political service to the country, the time had come to step down and spend more time with his family. Schmid has been under attack from several directions over his management of the Swiss military programme, dating back at least to the summer of 2007. His appointment to head the Swiss armed forces, Roland Nef, came under fire then because a newspaper learned that his former companion had taken him to court for using her e-mail address in responding to sex-related classified ads online.
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."
Bern, Switzerland (TSR, Fre) – Switzerland now must wait until Thursday morning for Eveline Widmer Schlumpf to announce whether or not she will accept her election to the post of federal councillor. According to TSR she has asked for time until then to reflect on her decision. The government now has six of its seven councillors, but the UDC has for some time threatened to pull out its two councillors if both were not re-elected. Christoph Blocher was not and it is unclear if Samuel Schmid will refuse to take his seat, which would leave Switzerland without a government.
- 11:25, Doris Leuthard re-elected comfortably. The centre-right politician’s election completes the round of voting, but the candidates must still accept their elections before the cabinet’s composition is confirmed.
- 11:10, Hans-Rudolf Merz, a center-right Radical party member, was elected the sixth Council member.
- Ed. note, 11:05, virtually all French news web sites in Switzerland are
down at the moment due to an overload of visitors. This much is clear:
the Swiss are following the election. See also: Le Temps, results and analysis - 10:45. Christoph Blocher, UDC, has been defeated during a second round of voting, a major victory for the center and left, with Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf elected in his place. She is a UDC party member from Grisons, but as yet has not accepted the election. A motion from the UDC president to halt proceedings until later today to allow time for reflection was roundly defeated. Her election could bring to three the number of women on the seven-member council if Doris Leuthard, whose seat is the last one up for election, is also elected.
- 10:15. Four of the seven members of the Swiss government have been re-elected: Micheline Calmy-Rey, Samuel Schmid, Moritz Leuenberger and Pascal Couchepin. The other three seats are still being debated, with the Socialist party removing its candidate, Luc Recordon, but refusing to support Christoph Blocher’s re-election.
[Update, 10:35) St Prex, Vaud, Switzerland (GenevaLunch, Ellen Wallace with Laila Rodriguez) – André Bugnon, former mayor of St Prex and a UDC (People’s Party) member of Parliament since 1999, Monday was elected president of the Swiss lower house of Parliament, the Conseil national. He is the first farmer from French-speaking Switzerland to fill the one-year post. With 161 of 182 votes, his election passed comfortably.
Bugnon is joined by a fellow UDC member, Christoffel Brändli, who has been elected president of the upper house of Parliament, the Conseil des états. The third and most important branch of Switzerland’s three governing groups, the Federal Council, or cabinet, will be elected by the two houses 12 December in a complex systems of negotiations among political parties.
The Parliament began its winter session 3 December in the capital city of Berne. This 48th session will last until 21 December.
Ed. note: GenevaLunch will carry an interview with Bugnon 8 December.
