UBS sponsors “Zurich Pride”, capitalizes “sexual orientation” and “gender identity” and forbids masculine words. Too much for the young SVP: The party wants to boycott the big bank.
The major bank UBS is a sponsor of Zurich Pride and is committed to diversity.
When the madam ode “Layla” was banned at the first German folk festivals, the young SVP called for the song to be downloaded as often as possible. This should catapult him to first place in the Swiss hit parade. The plan worked. Last Sunday, the Ballermann hit was number one in the charts. An unworthy successor to top 1 classics like «Another Brick in the Wall» or «I Have a Dream».
However, the young party did not stay long with their small triumph. Summer is short and there are still many windmills to attack. On Wednesday, the young SVP targeted UBS. Because the big bank “is massively committed to intolerant woke culture, adopt abstruse gender regulations and promote transgender ideology,” she terminated her UBS account. At the same time, she called on her followers to also close their accounts: “UBS wants to re-educate us politically and destroy our liberal culture. We fight against it!”
The group discovered its love for the politically correct and the LGBTQI+ movement a long time ago. He wants to consciously address minorities and recently made a name for himself with a list of bans on terms that are said to have male connotations. The internal index now contains words such as “intellect” or “opinion”. Instead, UBS employees should use terms such as “spirit” or “opinion”. The big bank is by no means alone in its efforts not to offend a minority. It is part of a movement that has gripped many global companies and that the US bestselling author and entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy calls “woke capitalism”.
The fact that the young SVP is now rushing to UBS after its “Layla” crusade has a lot to do with its president, David Trachsel. Trachsel, a self-confessed conservative Christian, is also involved in two popular initiatives that want to limit the right to abortion. The 27-year-old is the managing director of a consumer organization and comes from the Stadtbasler SVP, which, in contrast to him, is more moderate. When Trachsel criticized the Basel corona measures during the pandemic and accused Lukas Engelberger, head of the health department, of dictatorial behavior, the head of the SVP parliamentary group publicly distanced himself from the statement.
Things quieted down around Trachsel for a while, and now he apparently sees the time for a counter-revolution: a concert in Bern was recently canceled because the sight of blond dreadlocks made some sensitive souls in the audience uncomfortable. Since then, the incident has been discussed almost as widely and heatedly as the “Layla” ban. The Young SVP wants to take advantage of the moment and capitalize as much as possible on the debate with their actions. Goal: Everything Woke has to go, “Layla” should stay and UBS should swallow dust.
At the mother party, not everyone is equally enthusiastic about the activism of the youngsters. With his penchant for simple symbols, Trachsel reminds her of the provocateur Andreas Glarner, who not only has friends in the SVP. And another aspect should concern the party. UBS not only sponsors events like Zurich Pride. Alongside CS and Novartis, she is one of the major supporters of the Swiss political system. According to an SRF survey, in 2019 the big bank donated CHF 500,000 to political parties “who support a generally business-friendly environment”.