THE MAGAZINE FOR THE SWISS ABROAD OCTOBER 2010 / NO. 4 World Ski Championships: Lara Gut is back Swiss fi nancial centre needs clean money Thomas Maissen’s new history of Switzerland Protect your interests, vote in Switzerland! www.aso.ch Auslandskrankenversicherung ● bereits ab 131,- € monatlich ● Tarifvergleiche online www.auslandsschweizer.com A + E GmbH, +49 (0)228-3388770 .QZ[\)QL www.revue.ch We look forward to your online visit. All-round insurance cover for Swiss citizens living abroad. The CSS Insurance International Health Plan covers medical expenses: on the job, off the job; sickness, accident and preg- nancy. For details and a quotation: www.css.ch/ihp Phone: ++41 58 277 16 87/91 [email protected] E-Mail: SR 2010 Insurance EDITORIAL CONTENTS 3 Poor colleagues 5 ARELY HAS NATIONAL GOVERNMENT come in for such sustained and intense crit- Mailbag icism as in the current legislative period. The way the Federal Council handled the Libya debacle, the UBS affair and the tax row with Germany underlines the fact 5 R Books: Swiss icons that the institution no longer operates as a collegial body, but is instead made up of indi- viduals striving to outdo one another. 7 The retirements of Federal Councillors Leuenberger and Merz, initially intended Images: The Festival of Swiss Wrestling to be staggered, were also exasperating. It once again became evident that national gov- 8 ernment is no longer working as a team. Only after pressure was exerted by Parliament, The Swiss fi nancial centre needs clean money the parties and the media did Leuenberger change his stance and declare himself willing 12 to stand down from offi ce at the same time as Merz to avoid the uncustomary individual Switzerland through the eyes of photo- departure. Parliament would otherwise have spent practically the entire autumn dealing grapher Max Schmid just with Federal Council elections and would have had to postpone other urgent busi- ness. 14 It is understandable that members of the Federal Council will hold different view- Notes from Parliament points and may not see eye to eye with one another on a personal level as well. Even on Regional news the Federal Council, people cannot choose their work colleagues. However, all Swiss pol- iticians know that the Federal Council is a collegial body and has to work as a team. Any- one not prepared to work with colleagues as part of a team should not put themselves 16 forward. Impressions of the Congress of the Swiss The media is also partly to blame for ensuring the Federal Council no longer appears Abroad to be unifi ed. As so much emphasis is put on personalities, we only ever read and hear 17 about “Maurer’s department” and “Leuthard’s department”. The media writes about Fi- The tales of a Swiss soldier nance Minister Merz and Foreign Minister Calmy-Rey as though individual members of the Federal Council could determine pol- 18 New history of Switzerland: an interview icy themselves. The fact that policy must be approved by the en- with Thomas Maissen tire institution is overlooked. It is not actually Interior Minister Burkhalter who is responsible for another increase in health insur- 20 ance premiums, but the Federal Council majority. The Federal Council elections Perhaps the Federal Councillors themselves are no longer 22 aware of how the Swiss system of government works. What else OSA news could explain the Federal Council not being fully informed of 25 Heinz Eckert the actions of individual members, or explain three Federal Voting Councillors voicing different opinions on an offi cial statement in various Sunday news- papers after a meeting? 26 There is much talk about government reform. However, the problem is not the col- Lucerne landmark in need of restoration legial system, but orchestrated vanity. Federal Council members employ whole teams of 27 personal staff and PR and media experts in their departments whose perpetual task it is Super-edelweiss from Valais to present the head in the best light at all times. 28 The election of Federal Councillors not looking to hog the limelight and appear on The Swiss ski team in good shape the world stage, but instead who see their primary role as duty-bound offi cials, old-fash- ioned though that may be, would be far better than any government reform. A collegial 30 body of this kind made up of equal Federal Councillors would then be capable of pro- Interview with the parties: CVP International tecting the interests of the nation and the people in line with its constitutional mandate 31 without losing sight of the future. Echo HEINZ ECKERT, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Cover photo: Ski racer Lara Gut (Keystone) IMPRINT: “Swiss Review”, the magazine for the Swiss abroad, is in its 37th year of publication and is published in German, French, Italian, English and Spanish in 14 regional editions. It has a total circulation of 416000. Regional news appears four times a year. ober 2010 / No. 4 / No. ober 2010 ■ EDITORS: Heinz Eckert (EC), Editor-in-Chief; Rolf Ribi (RR); René Lenzin (RL); Alain Wey (AW); Jean-François Lichtenstern (JFL), responsible for “Notes from Parliament”, Service for the Swiss Abroad, DFA, CH-3003 Berne Translation: CLS Communication AG ■ LAYOUT: Herzog Design, Zurich ■ POSTAL ADDRESS: Publisher, editorial offi ce, advertising: Organi sation of the Swiss Abroad, Alpenstrasse 26, CH-3006 Berne, Tel.: +4131356 6110, Fax: +4131356 61 01, Postal account (Swiss National Giro): 30-6768-9. Internet: www.revue.ch ■ E-MAIL: [email protected] ■ PRINT: Swissprinters St.Gallen AG, CH-9001 St.Gallen. ■ CHANGE OF ADDRESS: Please advise your local embassy or consulate. Do not write to Berne. ■ All Swiss abroad who are registered with a Swiss representation receive the magazine free of charge. Anyone else can subscribe to the magazine for an annual fee (Switzerland: CHF 25 / abroad: CHF 40). SWISS REVIEW Oct Subscribers are sent the magazine direct from Berne. Copy deadline for this edition: 23.8.2010 MAILBAG BOOKS 5 Credit Suisse charges Swiss good fortune to come to after the success of his book “So Sweet Zerland”, Franco- abroad Switzerland in 1944 aged 11 Swiss author Xavier Casile is back with a second volume. Here It would seem that Credit and to spend a few years he explores 50 Swiss icons with plenty of humour, personal an- Suisse intend to charge their growing up in the Jura ecdotes and, of course, facts. Swiss who think they know all customers living abroad who mountains. I was able to there is to know about their country are made to think again: hold accounts in Switzer- learn rudimentary French at the submerged part of the iceberg reveals lots of surprises. All land the sum of CHF 40 per the village school in the val- aspects of Swiss life are covered, from brands to artists and month. The charge can be ley for which I am still very museums to international organisations. In addition, a third avoided if one has a balance grateful today. In my youth, volume is to be published in November and one-minute televi- greater than CHF 1 million! I was very familiar with the sion documentaries are to be broadcast on channels TSR, SF This is outrageous as many picture of General Guisan, and TV5 Monde (as well as on the Good Heidi Production web- Swiss abroad will have mod- which could be seen every- site). These short stories will be narrated by well-known fi g- est sums only in such ac- where. However, I was not ures such as former Federal Councillor Adolf Ogi, who will lend counts - such as savings yet aware who General his voice to the German version, and the unforgettable 007 from their youth and time Guisan was. I gradually Swiss icons under the microscope - in print and on screen star Roger Moore, who will present the English one. living in Switzerland - now learned what kind of man So, what fascinating facts does “So Suite Zerland 2” have in used for holiday visits etc. Guisan was. He was and re- store for us? Where does the name of the chocolate Ragusa, estab- Not only is the scale of the mains for me a legend whom lished in 1942, come from? It is the former name of the city of Du- charge disproportionate we can thank for saving brovnik in Croatia, which was visited by chocolatier Camille Bloch when compared with the Switzerland during the war. in the 1930s. As for the Alphorn, it started life in the 14th century current level of interest He deserves his immortal as a much shorter instrument and it was not until the 19th century rates it unwittingly discrimi- status for his outstanding that it was lengthened to the 3.4-metre form we know today. Read- nates against Swiss people address on the Rütli alone. ers will also learn that the Red Cross was established by Henry who live abroad. Domestic I have little interest still to Dunant of Geneva in 1863, after he was involved in the carnage of residents of Switzerland will this day in the “blemishes” the Battle of Solferino, Italy, where Napoleon III fought the not be charged. gradually being uncovered Austrians in 1856. The European Organisation for Nuclear Research H. CRABTREE-RUGGLI, ENGLAND by historians and biogra- (CERN) was founded in Geneva in 1954 and commissioned its fi rst phers. particle accelerator in 1959. Not a globally unique issue W. GEISER, GERMANY Remaining in the city of Calvin, readers are given an insight Peter Rothenbühler com- into the “Palais des Nations”, fi rstly the headquarters of the League ments that the problem is The other father of the of Nations in 1936 and then of the UN in 1942.