Switzerland

“If Europe is incapable of working for peace, it will vanish from history!”

Interview with Georges Martin* conducted by “Indocile.press”

((31 October 2022) Edit.) Now retired, Georges Martin, former No. 3 in Swiss diplomacy, is committed to and wants to be an ambassador for peace. The man who served neutrality shows us that he is so attached to this notion that he would not want to corrupt it with the convoluted language of diplomacy. “Indocile” called on this diplomat whose personal commitment to neutrality allows the Iranians to make the pilgrimage to Arabia and the Saudis to Mashhad.

“I had an impact – that’s what counts”

Interview of ICRC President Peter Maurer* conducted by Barbara Lüthi, SRF (Swiss Radio and Television), 11 August 2022

(18 August 2022) Peter Maurer’s presidency at the «International Committee of the Red Cross» (ICRC) was marked by many crises: the Syrian war, the persecution of the Rohingya in Myanmar, Afghanistan and Ukraine. In this interview, he takes a look back.
Switzerland

“A world record is growing here!”

(22 June 2022) (Edit.) The “Swiss Farmers’ Union” (Schweizer Bauernverband SBV) is drawing attention to itself in its anniversary year with a World Record Rösti* campaign. The children and young people involved are thus given a welcome connection to the realities of agriculture and a staple food, the potato. Unfortunately, it takes on a current urgency in the context of world events, the safeguarding of food sovereignty and one’s own provisions and preparedness.

Manual work for a “dog mission”

by Max Hugelshofer, Swiss Mountain Aid

(20 June 2022) What do guide dogs in Switzerland, the USA, Australia or France have in common? Most likely they wear a harness that was handmade in Switzerland. Until recently in the Jura, now in a mountain village in Ticino.

Swiss neutrality

Leaders on the wrong track

by Thomas Scherr

(10 April 2022) How did it come about that the Federal Council and with it the National Council lost their heads within a few days and pushed aside the country’s centuries-old neutrality? What interests were at work in the background? What could a way back to neutrality look like?

Neutrality has nothing to do with heartlessness and lack of solidarity

(13 March 2022) Edit. Ambiguously and contrary to the country's good tradition, the Federal Council endorsed on February 28, 2022, the EU's far-reaching sanctions against Russia. Switzerland is neither a member of the EU nor of NATO, nor is it part of any alliance with Ukraine or Russia. The Federal Council was expected to find a diplomatically balanced and Swiss solution.