Swiss president kicks off National Day celebrations on Rütli meadow

Federal celebration on the Rütli with Karin Keller-Sutter gets underway Keystone-SDA

Karin Keller-Sutter spoke at a National Day celebration on the Rütli meadow on Friday. She emphasised Switzerland's cohesion and cited mutual understanding, reliability and predictability as the country's strengths in uncertain times.

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“Harmony and diversity” was the motto of this year’s National Day celebrations on the Rütli in central Switzerland. Keller-Sutter, who is also the country’s finance minister, illustrated diversity with eleven different Swiss German words for cutting bread.

“I am sure that if you were all to give your version, the answers would be almost as numerous as the number of people here on the Rütli,” she told the more than 700 attendees. The dialects exemplify the incredible diversity of Switzerland in the smallest of places, she said.

Federalism guarantees diversity

According to Keller-Sutter, federalism also ensures diversity in politics. It ensures that municipalities and cantons can take into account the different needs and expectations of their populations. However, in order for it to be preserved, there must also be a willingness to take responsibility.

One of Switzerland’s strengths is its reliability, said Keller-Sutter: “Especially in these uncertain times, it is the new currency.”

The president cited mutual understanding as another of Switzerland’s strengths. Thanks to this, she said, Switzerland has not experienced a Babylonian confusion of languages despite its multilingualism.

Keller-Sutter did not address the new 39% tariff rate on Swiss imports, announced by US President overnight, in her speech. However, when asked about it by the organisers of the celebration, she said that Switzerland had already weathered many storms. It was now a matter of getting up and getting to work.

Translated from German with DeepL/gw

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