GENEVA LETTER
Before getting to the heart of the matter, just a reminder, to illustrate a state of mind. The image dates from September 4, 2014. On the platform of Neuchâtel station, the then Swiss Minister of Foreign Affairs, Didier Burkhalter, taps on his smartphone while waiting for the train, without adviser or bodyguard. Alone, superbly. Admiringly, a journalist photographed him and posted the scene on Twitter with this comment: “A passenger like any other. “ The praise rained down immediately. It would be there “A certain idea of Switzerland”, a perfect democracy that does not throw taxpayers’ money down the drain for the culpable distractions of pomp and pomp, “Like in Paris or Washington”.
The problem with this government frugality is that it ended up turning against its main players. The case, therefore: in 2021, no less than three major incidents were listed in the lightly bloated federal government air fleet, to the point that some ill-intentioned observers have come to see it as a metaphor. Switzerland would no longer provide itself with the means to maintain access beyond its small Alpine horizon. What is it about ? Three ministers in their little shoes, when traveling abroad.
First sequence at the end of last July in London. While she came to participate in a preparatory meeting for COP26, Transport and Environment Minister Simonetta Sommaruga was stuck at the Royal Air Force base in Northolt. The engine of the tiny jet (9 seats) Cessna Citation Excel stubbornly refuses to start. The device must be repaired on site, which takes time. Bern therefore had to dispatch the government’s only wide-range aircraft, a Falcon 900 from Dassault Aviation, to repatriate the Federal Councilor in the harbor.
“As soon as a problem arises on a long-haul flight, there is no alternative, you have to turn back”, Thomas Hurter, Swiss MP and pilot
Second incident, a few days later, with the same Falcon. Guy Parmelin, president of the Confederation in office, must be worn pale to the Emperor of Japan Naruhito who is waiting for him in Tokyo. Due to a technical problem, and as it flew over Eastern Europe shortly after taking off from Bern, the aircraft had to make a humiliating U-turn. The Federal Councilor will still arrive in time for the official opening of the Olympic Games in the Japanese capital, after having to take an airliner.
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