Minorities underrepresented in government, says association

Up in arms: François Lachat (right) wants minorities to have a bigger say in how the administration is run Keystone

French and Italian speakers are still not sufficiently represented in the federal administration, according to Helvetia Latina.

François Lachat, president of the association, said on Monday in Bern that only two-thirds of all federal offices have applied the government’s 1997 ruling on fair minority representation. Instructions had been issued at the time to ensure the presence of members of linguistic minorities at all levels of the administration.

Lachat called on the authorities to make sure their decisions were applied in the future.

According to Helvetia Latina, an analysis of the structures of 11 federal offices shows the imbalance between language groups. In 1999, just one office had 7.7 per cent of Italian-speaking managers, equivalent to the percentage of all native Italian speakers in Switzerland.

Three offices also had the required 19.2 per cent of French speakers at management level.

“At the highest level of the administration, we need people from every part of Switzerland,” said Philippe Zahno, the association’s secretary. “It’s not good when only one part of the population is represented.”

Personnel Office view

No changes were recorded between 1997 and 1999, according to the association. The Federal Personnel Office does not agree, saying the share of minorities has increased over the last four years.

But Lachat, a member of the House of Representatives from canton Jura, said the office’s statistics do not take into account the privatisation of some federal entities, such as the defence procurement agency.

The association also points out that 96 per cent of all translations are made from German to one of the other two official languages. “It’s not possible to work only on the basis of translations,” Zahno told swissinfo.

Language issue

According to Helvetia Latina, this means most decisions are now made in German, but that the country’s three official languages should be considered as equals in the future.

“It is important to ensure French and Italian speakers are involved in the decision process from the beginning,” said Zahno.

Helvetia Latina was created in 1980 to ensure that linguistic minorities are properly represented within the federal administration. The association will continue lobbying the government in the future.

swissinfo with agencies