Switzerland: Blocher's last great neutrality battle. What about us, Lithuanians?

“The founding father of the Swiss People's Party wants to impose absolute neutrality on the country through a popular initiative. 

 

Bern should then no longer participate in the sanctions against Russia. 

 

It's currently making waves in the Swiss media. On Tuesday, Silvia Blocher, 77, was allowed to write about the more or less emancipated life alongside her famous husband on a double page in the political section of the Neue Zürcher Zeitung. While Christoph Blocher himself, 81 years old and long since out of office, fills the headlines with what he has always loved to do: thinking about vital issues in Switzerland.

What the formerly or in fact still strong man of the national conservative Swiss People's Party (SVP) intends could become his last battle as a politician. It is, once again, about his life theme, which has regularly brought him into conflict with the zeitgeist: independence. 

 

Switzerland, he believes, can only survive if it stays completely out of the world's dealings, if it remains a neutral and sovereign island in the middle of Europe.

 

His career began with this consideration when he surprisingly succeeded in a referendum in 1992 in preventing Switzerland from joining the European Economic Area. And that's how it could end when the citizens decide about the controversial popular initiative that Blocher is preparing. 

 

It is intended to enshrine Switzerland's comprehensive, unconditional neutrality in the constitution.

 

Blocher sees an acute need for action. In his view, the Swiss government, the Bundesrat, has crossed a red line in its response to Russia. As is well known, the seven-member committee initially announced that it would not participate in the US and EU sanctions against Russia and would only ensure that the punitive measures were not circumvented with Swiss help. After worldwide protests, which also put moral pressure on the country, the Federal Council caved in shortly thereafter and promised to take over the EU sanctions in full.

For Blocher, the fact that Switzerland is carrying the EU sanctions is a sin

 

The new motto is "cooperative" neutrality, Foreign Minister Ignazio Cassis justified the swing. While US President Joe Biden hailed that "even Switzerland" is now causing Russia pain, the Kremlin included the Confederation on its list of "unfriendly states".

 

Blocher, who watches the world from his villa over Lake Zurich, protested quickly and loudly. In interviews and articles he stated a fall from grace. It is precisely the "perpetual, armed and integral" neutrality that has secured peace in the country over the past 200 years. Integral means not supporting economic sanctions against states. The "bread freeze," as Blocher calls it in reference to the reformer Zwingli, is not only the "cruelest weapon" in war, after all, people are being "starved out" on purpose. It is also fundamentally ineffective and apparently does not impress President Vladimir Putin in the least, but actually strengthens him. For Switzerland, on the other hand, there is an unnecessary potential threat because it itself has become a "war party". The country should rather offer its "good offices" and mediate in the conflict.

 

"Neutrality helps not to irritate an enemy," Blocher argues, referring to history: After World War I, Switzerland disregarded this principle when it joined the League of Nations and promised to support the sanctions against Italy after its invasion of Abyssinia . An Italian invasion of Ticino was only avoided by the collapse of the League of Nations. Blocher says that it is acceptable that an impartial attitude will incur the displeasure of the belligerents. 

 

"The neutral state only has advantages, also for the economy."

 

As always when something is important to him, Blocher is now trying to correct the government, in which his party is also represented, with the help of the people. At the end of May he invited people to a "neutrality workshop" in Zurich's main train station, where the text of the planned initiative was discussed. Also present: old SVP comrades-in-arms like Ulrich Schlueer and Christoph Mörgeli, non-partisan interested parties and, typically Blocher, a potential dissenter in the form of the Green Liberal Nicola Forster - to clarify his own position.

The result: the popular initiative would, in addition to a ban on alliances, prohibit any participation in sanctions, except for those decided by the United Nations (which the veto powers in the Security Council usually block). It is to be brought in soon.

 

 At present, the vast majority of Swiss support neutrality in principle. 

 

However, it will be three to four years before the vote is taken. That is risky, some in the train station said. What if the Russian operation then continues, the mood changes and the vote is lost? And so that the whole concept of neutrality would be damaged? Blocher is said to have replied that if you don't risk anything, you don't gain anything."

 

Good and safe small countries are neutral. Ireland is also neutral. We are moving to Ireland from Lithuania in increasing numbers. Lithuania should be neutral too.