Will Swiss president be forbidden from speaking English to counterparts?

Karin Keller-Sutter, the Swiss finance minister who holds the current rotating presidency role. Keystone-SDA

Switzerland's president, Karin Keller-Sutter, should use one of the country's four national languages - French, German, Italian or Romansh - when communicating with international organisations, and not English, according to a motion that passed on Wednesday in the House of Representatives.

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This should be the rule with organisations that have one of Switzerland’s national languages among their official working languages, according to the motion tabled by Swiss Senator Carlo Sommaruga, a left-wing Social Democrat. He put forward the motion in response to the decision by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), an intergovernmental organisation, to use English for Switzerland’s next national evaluation.

With such a motion, “I will no longer have the right to speak in English with leaders of other countries and organisations”, declared Keller-Sutter, the Swiss finance minister who holds the current rotating presidency. She pointed out that German, French and Italian are the official languages of many organisations, including the European Union.

Nicolò Paganini of the Centre Party argued that Switzerland “may find itself having to take an interpreter to the table when all the other participants speak English”.

The result would be unnecessary costs and an attack on Switzerland’s top priority, which is to put its interests first. These arguments did not take.

Jean-Luc Addor of the right-wing Swiss People’s Party reacted on behalf of the committee by saying that it was a question of common sense. Exceptions will of course be tolerated, he said. The House of Representatives accepted the motion by 93 votes to 81, with 15 abstentions.

Translated from French by DeepL/sb

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