Section: Switzerland
Johan Rochel, the far-center string-puller
He has at least thirteen hats on his head, as many as the stars on his cantonal flag. At the very limited level of French-speaking Switzerland, he represents a (small) public voice. He proposes his way of seeing the world to anyone who will listen: through the Appel Citoyen movement he co-founded, the Foraus think tank he vice-chaired or the ethics laboratory he still co-directs. He also unpacks his values on 19h30 when he is invited to talk about fundamental freedom, on Le Temps when he conducts a questionnaire on sustainability, or on his blog when he analyzes current events while presenting the object of his research. And when you're a philosopher, «the object of your research» is vast. And diluted.
The center has no monopoly on the search for balance
Anti-ideologism, nothing but a posture
«Le Centre»: debate between two young centrists
At the start of 2021, the Swiss political landscape undergoes a major turning point. The historic Christian Democratic Party (CVP) welcomes into its ranks the young Bourgeois Democratic Party (PBD). This merger, mainly in German-speaking Switzerland, is accompanied by a veritable earthquake as the party changes its name to Le Centre. Nathan Bender of the Jeunes démocrates-chrétiens (JDC) in French-speaking Valais and Sascha Zbinden of the Jeunes bourgeois-démocrates (JPBD) in Bern cross swords, sharing their visions and thoughts on this new party and the challenges it will face in the coming years.
The bilateral route has always been a dead end
ARTICLE LONG FORMAT, Clément Guntern | When Switzerland embarked on the bilateral path in the early 2000s, it thought it had found a form of cohabitation with its European neighbor that would be profitable and adapted to Swiss particularities. From the outset, however, this path was in reality a political dead-end. It remains so today, and can be explained by a series of deep-rooted Swiss myths. To get out of this cul-de-sac, it is up to the Swiss people to finally have a European project. An act requiring courage and modesty, and one that would strengthen our national identity.
Vocational training: a university affair?
LONG FORMAT ARTICLE, Robin Parisi | Swiss education is conceived as a system with two main parallel, but mutually permeable, routes. The so-called «vocational» route starts with the famous CFC and can end with ES, Brevets Fédéraux or Diplôme Fédéral diplomas. The second route takes students from Matura, gymnasium or specialized schools to the universities and HES. And yet, as is mainly the case in French-speaking Switzerland, the universities of applied sciences - with the benevolent blessing of the French-speaking cantonal authorities - are monopolizing the privilege of vocational training. Without, however, relinquishing the «university» prestige that the Bologna Process has brought them.
Mohamed Hamdaoui: «Teachers must be given the opportunity to speak out».»
LONG FORM INTERVIEW, Jonas Follonier | He's one of Switzerland's leading politicians in the fight against Islamism. Even if he doesn't like the word «combat» (he prefers the word «cause»), Mohamed Hamdaoui has made it one of his priority themes, making himself a highly committed player in the debate, even if it means over-emotionalizing. His background no doubt has something to do with it: born in the Hoggar, this Tuareg loved a woman who, in the 1980s, was kidnapped by Algerian Islamists because she refused to wear the veil. These sowers of terror beheaded her. The murder in France of Professor Samuel Paty by a radicalized Muslim using the same modus operandi shook him to the core. Interview with a former socialist turned PDC, who doesn't consider Switzerland immune to political Islam.
Cyrille Fauchère: «We want a democratic debate on sanitary measures».»
L'UDC VS a publié un communiqué jeudi 22 octobre.
We're soldiers and that's fine
The appearance of Covid-19 has created an unprecedented and destabilizing situation. The population was mobilized, in the quasi-military sense of the word, against an enemy who was, however, unarmed. Particularly during the period of confinement, the concentration of power in the hands of the Federal Council seemed unbearable to some. The anti-systems had a field day. An epidemic of obedience.
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