For several months, Switzerland has been causing growing annoyance abroad: refusal formulated to its European partners (Germany, Denmark and Spain) to re-export Swiss weapons in their possession to Ukraine; procrastination in the search for Russian assets in Switzerland; stalled relations with the European Union. Six months before the federal elections on October 22, the Federal Council (coalition government) seems paralyzed by the electoral stakes. This context benefits the Democratic Center Union (UDC), a formation credited with approximately 26% of voting intentions, which places this sovereignist and Europhobic party at its highest level since 2015. The current isolation of the Switzerland on the international scene benefits this formation which has made isolationism its political mark for three decades. For its historical manager, the billionaire industrialist Christoph Blocher, 82, this return to favor is easily explained: “The population is fed up with this ambient internationalism. »
He is no longer a minister or deputy, but he continues to broadcast his diatribes of “Neinsager” (“those who say no”). At 82, Mr. Blocher shows up alone at the meeting with The world in the living room of a Bernese palace, a stone’s throw from the Parliament, raincoat and felt hat, without a bodyguard in sight. Why wouldn’t Switzerland renounce its isolationist tendency, as Finland has just done by joining NATO? “Switzerland is in a completely different situation from the Finns or the Baltic countriesadvances Christoph Blocher. They are afraid of an enemy who is on their direct border, they have sought and obtained the protection of NATO. For Switzerland, a small neutral state, the challenge is different. She doesn’t get involved in other people’s conflicts. And she defends her territory alone. This strategy suits us perfectly since we have not known war for two centuries. I recognize that this neutrality is always difficult to understand abroad. We must therefore insist on what this status allows us to offer, for example the diplomacy of good offices, a status of strictly neutral mediator. »
“Complete Neutrality”
After hesitating for a good week at the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Bern ended up aligning itself with all of the European sanctions against those close to the Kremlin. A breach of its neutrality, unacceptable, according to Christoph Blocher: “By participating in this conflict, we have de facto become one of the enemies of Russia, for which we have also received the congratulations of the American president, Joe Biden. This is regrettable, because one day we will have to put an end to this conflict, and Switzerland could have acted as a mediator. Moreover, the last meeting between Putin and Biden before the war was held in Geneva in June 2021. But, for the Russians, Switzerland is no longer an option. »
You have 38.09% of this article left to read. The following is for subscribers only.