After a long career as the face of political journalism in French-speaking Switzerland, Alain Rebetez tells the Helvetians all about France, as Tamedia's Paris correspondent. Five years after his arrival, we take stock of his mission and the differences between the two countries.
DOSSIER «VOUS AVEZ DIT EUROPE?» | La relation entre la Suisse et l’Union européenne n’a jamais été aussi mauvaise. Là-dessus, nos deux débatteurs sont d’accord. Mais au-delà, leurs vues s’opposent diamétralement. Félicien Monnier, qui se dit conservateur et souverainiste, est avocat et préside depuis l’an dernier la Ligue vaudoise. Julien Rilliet, membre du Parti socialiste et du Mouvement européen suisse (NOMES), dirige sa propre boîte de consulting politique. Voici nos dix questions à ces deux jeunes observateurs romands, qui s’intéressent au destin de la Suisse et du continent.
Let's try a little imagination. It's Sunday, October 20, 2019. Since midday, the results for the first cantons have been trickling in, with some regions clearly going faster than others. Suddenly, to everyone's surprise and contrary to what the media and experts had been claiming for several months, it's not the ecologist parties that are posting surprising scores; it's the Union démocratique du center! As the day progresses, the map of Switzerland changes to an almost uniform green, but not a light green. This one is much darker. At around 7.30pm, when Swiss Radio's star presenter takes to the airwaves, the news is crystal clear: for the first time since 1919 and the end of radical rule in Switzerland, one party has won an absolute majority in both the National Council and the Council of States, and that party is the SVP.
LONG FORM ARTICLE, Diego Taboada | The 2019 European elections are presented in most media as a referendum for or against immigration. Why not instead see it as an opportunity to rethink the system as a whole and finally propose reforms to save the European Union?
Free trade is out of fashion, not so much because politicians don't believe in it as because they prefer to lie to the public rather than have the courage to explain the benefits of open markets. The recent example of CETA bears witness to this.