by Christoph Pfluger,* Solothurn
Dear readers
What many people don’t know: Neutrality is part of Switzerland’s DNA. But it is not enshrined in the constitution.
This is why Foreign Minister Ignazio Cassis was able to throw it overboard at the end of February 2022 without a Swiss government decision, without a parliamentary decision and without a referendum.
Dear Madam President of the Swiss Confederation, Ms Viola Amherd
Dear Federal Councillor, Mr Ignazio Cassis
NATO is neither a peace nor a defence alliance, but since 1991 an organisation that has been trying to usurp the tasks of the United Nations.
NATO is an organisation that is incompatible with the Charter of the United Nations (Art. 52) and acts against the objectives of the UN.
by Ralph Bosshard*
(28 June 2024) From a discussion on the careless handling of Switzerland’s neutrality – which the Federal Department of Defence, Civil Protection and Sport (DDPS) department management and the army leadership have cultivated since the mid-1990s – one aspect that moved many listeners was that of armed neutrality.
by Guy Mettan,* Geneva
(31 May 2024) The bush of the Bürgenstock hides the devastated forest of Swiss diplomacy. Forgive me for this hackneyed metaphor, but it is unfortunately the sad reality. Since Ignazio Cassis took office in 2017, which was aggrevated by the arrival of Viola Amherd at the head of the Defence Department in 2018 – both fierce advocates of a realignment towards NATO and the USA – Swiss foreign policy has taken a turn for the worse. And in the wrong direction.
by Thomas Scherr*
(17 May 2024) A new understanding of independence and neutrality has spread like mildew across the Swiss media world and is now being instilled into the public’s consciousness. Even politicians and federal councillors are now of the mistaken opinion that a rapprochement with NATO could somehow be compatible with the country’s neutrality. An extremely fatal error.
Switzerland is slowly and imperceptibly finding itself in a situation that hardly anyone could have imagined. As a small state, it is threatened to become a cog in a huge military machine – there can no longer be any talk of neutrality and independence. And this even though the value of neutrality is consistently ranked first in surveys of how the Swiss see themselves. Politicians affirm the country’s neutrality again and again, while they themselves stand idly by... or are actively involved in steering Switzerland into a highly dangerous situation.
by Ueli Gubler*
(10 May 2024) (CH-S) On 9 June 2024, a federal referendum on four proposals will take place. The first three proposals concern a decision on three popular initiatives on healthcare issues.
The fourth proposal is about the acceptance or rejection of the “Federal Act on a Secure Electricity Supply with Renewable Energy Sources” passed by Parliament in autumn 2023. A committee has launched a referendum against this law and collected the necessary 50,000 signatures within three months. As a result, this federal law is now up for a vote.
Ueli Gubler has analysed the content of this law on “secure electricity supply” and sets out his considerations for the “Swiss Standpoint” in the following article.