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Swiss Politics

Business supports People’s Party demand

This content was published on Dec 3, 2003 The country’s business leaders say the Christian Democrats should pay for their poor showing in October’s election by forfeiting one of their two seats. Head of the Zurich wing of the People’s Party Christoph Blocher – a billionaire industrialist who runs the chemical company, Ems Chemie – will stand for election to the seven-member cabinet…

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Metzler and Deiss struggle to keep seats

This content was published on Dec 3, 2003 They are both being challenged for their seats by the rightwing Swiss People’s Party’s Christoph Blocher. Every four years, shortly after the parliamentary elections, cabinet ministers need to have their mandate renewed by parliament. They normally have little trouble being re-elected, but after its gains in October’s parliamentary elections, the People’s Party has renewed its…

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Swiss Politics

New peace plan gets off the ground in Geneva

This content was published on Dec 1, 2003 The ceremony was a sombre but hopeful affair, featuring music, videos and speeches from international personalities. The American actor, Richard Dreyfus, opened the event by saying that the accord represented a “new starting point” for peace in the Middle East. “To sum it up in one word, this initiative represents hope,” he told swissinfo. In…

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Swiss Politics

New peace plan gets off the ground in Geneva

This content was published on Dec 1, 2003 The promoters of the Geneva Accord say the ceremony marks the start of a broad, international campaign to garner backing for the initiative. “We are going to the people and to the international community with a challenge that peace is possible and that the current crisis is not the only way forward,” said Ghaith Al…

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Swiss Politics

Rightwing backs all-or-nothing election strategy

This content was published on Nov 29, 2003 At a conference in Sempach on Saturday, 449 delegates came out in favour of pulling out of the seven-strong cabinet if the rightwing party’s demands for a second voice in government are not met. Seven opposed the threat, while 57 abstained. “We can only take responsibility in government when the most capable representatives from our…

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Swiss Politics

Swiss ministers not easily unseated

This content was published on Nov 29, 2003 If the rightwing party is successful, it will be only the third time an existing member of the Swiss government has not been re-elected. Under the Swiss political system, there is no provision for a parliamentary no-confidence motion, or for the dissolution of parliament before it has run its term. Cabinet ministers can only be…

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Swiss Politics

Rightwing prospers at the expense of Centre-right

This content was published on Nov 28, 2003 In just eight years it has gone from being the smallest of the parties in government to the largest. The People’s Party first entered government in 1929, when its predecessor, the Party of Farmers, Tradesmen and Citizens secured one seat at the expense of the Radicals. It remained the smallest of the four main political…

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Swiss Politics

Summit leaders split over bridging digital divide

This content was published on Nov 27, 2003 But the head of the Federal Communications Office, Marc Furrer, told swissinfo that the key issue of funding was unlikely to be resolved before or during the summit. In the run-up to the meeting, Switzerland has been charged with acting as an informal mediator during last-ditch talks with individual countries, aimed at ironing out lingering…

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Swiss Politics

Great and good urge Swiss to tie up with EU

This content was published on Nov 27, 2003 The group says EU membership would allow Switzerland to better defend its interests in Europe, and has called on the government to begin talks with Brussels next year. The astronaut, Claude Nicollier, star architects Mario Botta and Jacques Herzog, as well as four former cabinet ministers are among 72 personalities calling on the government to…

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Swiss Politics

Is this going to be just talk and no action?

This content was published on Nov 26, 2003 The summit’s objectives are very ambitious, but the organisers believe that holding it in two parts will help to achieve concrete results. The plan is that the measures decided in Geneva will be carried out before the Tunis meeting, where progress will be assessed and a new Action Plan adopted, if required.

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