Emmanuel Macron began a rare state visit on Wednesday by a President of the French Republic to neighboring Switzerland, the signal of a warming between the two countries with the relationship with Europe in focus. The presidential plane landed at Bern-Belp airport early in the afternoon, according to journalists on site. Emmanuel Macron was welcomed by Alain Berset, who assumes the rotating presidency of the Federal Council until the end of the year.
The one who remains the most popular member of the federal government will leave office at the end of the year and the Swiss press highlights the bonds of friendship forged between the two men at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Last visit by a French head of state from Hollande in 2015
The French President and his wife Brigitte will be entitled to the consideration reserved for the most important guests while the last visit of a French head of state – François Hollande – dates back to 2015. Military honors, meeting with the seven members of the Federal Council, speeches at the Palace of Parliament and gala dinner will mark the first day. Besides François Hollande, only Jacques Chirac in 1998, François Mitterrand in 1983 and Armand Fallières in 1910 had made this trip.
Emmanuel Macron’s visit marks a normalization of relations between the two countries. In 2022, Switzerland had greatly irritated Paris in substance and form by choosing the American F-35 in preference to the French Rafale to modernize its air force, a contract worth more than 6 billion euros. And Bern had already shocked the entire European Union in May 2021 by announcing that it was abandoning negotiations for a framework agreement with the 27, after years of discussions.
Negotiations around a rapprochement with the EU
The Rafale page has been turned and the Swiss government has resumed communication with Brussels and is preparing to negotiate once again with the Commission. This turning point is “excellent news”, we rejoice in Paris. “This dynamic must now materialize,” adds an advisor to Emmanuel Macron, specifying that the latter will carry “a message of acceleration” to “relaunch negotiations in order to reach an agreement as quickly as possible”.
The rapprochement with the EU is a very sensitive political subject in Switzerland for questions of sovereignty, independence of the judicial system or protection of salaries. The unions have already expressed their skepticism, as has the country’s leading party, the UDC (radical right).
Emmanuel Macron’s program for Thursday
Placed by the French president under the sign of Europe, Thursday will be much less formal. He will visit the Jean Monnet Foundation for Europe in Lausanne before meeting students to talk about the “major societal issues” of the European Union. He also agreed to answer questions from the public. The economy will also be on the agenda, the two countries being important trading partners, and Switzerland the third largest investor in France.
Emmanuel Macron is due to meet economic leaders in Lausanne, before the president of the “Start-up Nation” takes a special train to reach Geneva in the company of leaders of start-ups.
The two-day trip will conclude on a fundamental science note with a visit to CERN, the European laboratory for nuclear research and particle physics, straddling the Franco-Swiss border. The opportunity to discuss the pharaonic Future Circular Collider project. A particle accelerator 100 kilometers in circumference, which is not unanimous within the scientific community but which in the eyes of its defenders should enable the search for new physics.