Why did four Swiss Federal Presidents negotiate 25 times with an EU Commission President over the course of seven years in order to improve Switzerland’s relations with the EU?
At the 26th meeting in Brussels, Federal President Guy Parmelin threw the unfinished business at the feet of the completely surprised EU President Ursula von der Leyen, broke off the meeting and flew back to Switzerland early.
Did you get it wrong? Ursula von der Leyen speaks perfect French as she was born and raised in Brussels. Parmelin speaks French better than English, but to call him fluent would be an exaggeration.
As a candidate for the SVP, the French-speaking French was not elected to the Federal Council as a legal rhetorician, but because he embodies the down-to-earthness of the Vaudois that makes him credible in large parts of the people.
And the SVP should bring votes in French-speaking Switzerland.
From today, January 1, 2022, the Federal Council still has ten working days to make a commitment to the highest EU authorities as to whether it seriously wants to negotiate in Brussels.
To this end, it should provide a “roadmap” indicating when the negotiations should be successfully concluded. The EU does not want to invest in Switzerland for another seven years. That is clear.
That cannot end well, because there is a reason for the earlier and further failure of the EU negotiations: the Swiss Federal Council has only limited capacity to act.
No member of the Bundesrat can afford to demand a constructive negotiation with the EU. This would require a new Christoph Blocher, who puts everything on one card and convinces the majority of the Swiss people that Switzerland cannot have a good future without cooperation with the EU.
Such a personality, man or woman, has to grow out of the Swiss people, just as Christoph Blocher did. This is not possible without intellectual and financial independence.
Why is the Federal Council only able to act to a limited extent?
Elections to the National Council will take place again in just under two years. There the fate of the FDP will decide whether it can keep two federal councilors. That will not be the case if it goes against the demands of the EU objectors, or if they even appear to be.
There, the fate of the SP Switzerland will decide whether it will continue to slide into a small party, as in Germany, and lose political influence. Every pro EU statement will cost them votes, because their new regular voters in the state administrations are by no means EU-friendly. From Brussels, they see themselves as being limited in their leeway.
For the time being, the Greens and Green Liberals are on their climate and domestic gender lines. So there is no need to talk about Europe and the EU.
The artistic party object “Die Mitte” doesn’t have to say anything at all, just wiggle left or right to prove its political weight.
The EU refusal party SVP wants to win, finally once again, relying on a voters whose horizon seldom exceeds that of their home region.
“We have a scree view,” said the once legendary FDP politician Ernst Mühlemann when he explained Switzerland to German neighbors.
The Federal Council has only limited capacity to act because every member wants to be re-elected. Those who want to resign may only do so in close consultation with their party leadership, which must build a successor in good time.
The Vice President of the EU Commission, the 55-year-old Slovak Marôs Sêfkovic, like all his colleagues in the Commission, never said that Switzerland had to join the EU.
They must also follow the norms of the internal market, just like the EU states.
We should talk about the tax breaks in Switzerland for those groups that are active in the entire domestic market (Nestlé, Roche, ABB etc.)
The Swiss contributions to the EU budget would have to be paid regularly again. This was most recently the case for the 2012 budget year.
Of course, there will now be a big roar that in Switzerland we would not need such blackmail from Brussels. In any case, it is only a matter of time before the EU dissolves under the pressure of its Eastern European members from Poland to Hungary.
We Swiss can be wrong, as many were wrong in the case of Brexit. Led by Professor Carl Baudenbacher, a former EFTA court president, Switzerland was looking for an escape route to England.
It is highly questionable whether Boris Johnson’s government will remain in control there for a long time. The English are fighting, more than ever, for their own prosperity and not for that of Switzerland.
The major Swiss media SRG, NZZ, Tages-Anzeiger and Blick have so far not shown the slightest desire to deal with the Federal Council’s EU dossier. They surrendered to the national Covid frenzy, where Health Minister Berset had promised that the epidemic would be defeated in four months.
In ten days it will show whether we are still able to act in terms of foreign policy. There should be miracles.
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