Geneva, capital of hygiene

Last autumn, Geneva's Grand Council supported a motion to ban smoking on terraces during mealtimes. In the end, the Conseil d'Etat saved the day by focusing instead on making smokers more responsible.

Imagine the scene. Geneva, Thursday, 1 p.m. The terrace of La Clémence on Place du Bourg-de-Four is full. A man finishes his entrecôte, pushes his plate away, takes out his packet. He lights himself a cigarette. At this precise moment, according to the majority of Geneva's Grand Council, he is committing an act harmful to public health. A danger. A nuisance. Almost a crime.

Same man. Same terrace. Same cigarette. Same day. It's 5:00 pm. It's mild because it's the beginning of summer. The terrace is already full. Glasses are piling up, conversations are lively. He lights up. No problem. Nothing to see here.

That's the absurdity of the motion passed at the end of the lake last October to ban smoking on terraces, but only during mealtimes. Because, as we all know, cigarette smoke behaves differently at 12:00 and 17:00.

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The best part? The motion provides for the possibility of creating smoking areas on the very terraces that should be smoke-free. You can imagine: a chalk line drawn on the cobblestones, a sign planted between two tables, and the smoke – docile, respectful, well-behaved – stopping right at the border. Smokers standing on the adjacent sidewalk, less than a metre from the protected tables, would pose no problem.

What's also surprising – but less and less so in the city of Calvin – is to see the Center, with a few UDC and a stray MCG, reaching out to the Left to get this text passed.

The bourgeois elected representatives defending the motion have their answer ready. The ban is aimed at busy times. Crowded terraces. That's why they've also chosen to ban smoking at bus stops - because they're crowded, and passive smoking in a busy space is a collective nuisance.

Except that on Friday evenings at 5:00 pm, the Clémence terrace is sometimes busier than at midday.

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The right-wing MPs responsible for this pantalonnade had an honest argument at hand. A cigarette at the table spoils the joys of wine tasting. The smell of tobacco wafting through the risotto and obliterating the aromas of the wine is sometimes a painful reality for those who value the pleasures of the table. It's a speech based on civility and the art of living that could have been delivered.

But no... they had to mobilize the health argument – as a goal in itself – and in an incoherent way... Fortunately, the Conseil d'Etat reacted to this text with a campaign only encouraging smokers to ask their neighbors if cigarettes don't bother them.

Nevertheless, in a canton which has already banned the sale of alcohol after 9pm and outlawed the sale of puffs by means of an emergency clause, parliament never misses an opportunity to propose measures leading to a form of health totalitarianism. Indeed, the author of the text, centrist MP Souheil Sayegh, left no ambiguity as to his intentions: «to denormalize the act of smoking». Ah, the nanny state!

Founder of the Cercle fribourgeois de débat et de rhétorique (Fribourg Debate and Rhetoric Society), Antoine Lévêque is an editor at Regard Libre. This interview was conducted in collaboration with Jonas Follonier.

You have just read an analysis from our dossier «Pleasure and health», published in our paper edition (Le Regard Libre N°126)