Samuel Bendahan: “In Switzerland, we can avoid the social catastrophe”

There is the macroeconomic context, recalled in the introduction to the last Swiss Statistical Social Report: from 1996 to 2017, the material standard of living of the population, measured in terms of GDP per capita, increased by 26% in a country which created 800,000 jobs during this period to count 3.9 million. And then there is the social reality: according to the director of Caritas, Hugo Fasel, a million people in total live in a precarious situation, of which 660,000 are directly affected by poverty.

So what about social status in Switzerland? The point of view of Samuel Bendahan, doctor of economics, lecturer and researcher at the University of Lausanne and at EPFL, as well as national socialist advisor from Vaud.

Le Temps: Are you worried about the social condition in Switzerland?

Samuel Bendahan: The social state is like freedom: it takes a constant effort to preserve it. The Covid-19 crisis is revealing of flaws in our social safety net. In a few days, we learn that freelancers will not have enough to live on, that businesses will have to close, that our invincible health system could be overwhelmed and that the most disadvantaged will be left behind. If we forget the momentum of solidarity that also arose from this crisis, the social state will be threatened by those who advocate austerity rather than humanity. But if we keep in our hearts what prompted us to applaud the evenings at our windows, then we will be able to strengthen the social state and solidarity.

Also read: What solutions to improve the next world?

Is it not alarmist to worry too much at a time when parliament has or is in the process of adopting paternity leave, adoption leave, leave for caregivers and future benefits for the unemployed older worker ?

It is true that we have won a few victories, but they remain modest. Two weeks of paternity leave is better than zero, but it remains miserable in international comparison. But even these few successes, we owe to popular pressure. It was thanks to the thousands of people who took offense at the absence of paternity leave that the pressure was sufficient and that the parliament was forced to accept a project. Having said that, it is not alarmist to worry, but paramount. If voices are not raised to come to the rescue of the many victims of the coronavirus crisis, we may well live tomorrow in a society that will make us ashamed. The incredible luck we have in Switzerland is that if we want to, we can avoid social catastrophe.

Controlled well so far, has the coronavirus crisis not revealed a robust health system, which is the backbone of the social state?

In international comparison, we have a good health system, but the crisis has also revealed flaws, such as the difficulty of having drugs or equipment, or the limitation of beds in intensive care in case of peak. Think of the people who had to take risks to preserve our health or secure our supply. Also consider the fact that society does not recognize the quality or the difficulty of the work provided by many people.

Also read: Food queues: the faces of the invisible

Will this coronavirus crisis lead to a revival of the social state or, on the contrary, to the return of a muscular liberalism demanding austerity plans to revive the economy?

If there is no popular mobilization and if we let it go, it is muscular liberalism that will prevail. The crisis has weakened the most disadvantaged and the middle class, but until today large fortunes and big landowners have managed to protect their possessions. However, the world according to the coronavirus remains our world. We have the choice of learning we want to do. It is possible, because we have the means, to rise up even stronger, but for that it will be necessary that the voice of all be expressed. So we could witness a revival of the social state and a stronger, more sustainable and more united economy.

–