GENEVA LETTER
Earlier than attending to the guts of the matter, only a reminder, for instance a way of thinking. The picture dates from September 4, 2014. On the platform of Neuchâtel station, the then Swiss Minister of Overseas Affairs, Didier Burkhalter, faucets on his smartphone whereas ready for the practice, with out adviser or bodyguard. Alone, fantastically. Admiringly, a journalist photographed him and posted the scene on Twitter with this remark: “A passenger like another. « The reward rained down instantly. It could be there « A sure thought of Switzerland », an ideal democracy that doesn’t throw taxpayers’ cash down the drain for the culpable distractions of pomp and pomp, « Like in Paris or Washington ».
The issue with this authorities frugality is that it ended up turning in opposition to its major gamers. The case, subsequently: in 2021, a minimum of three main incidents had been listed within the little bloated air fleet of the federal authorities, to the purpose that some ill-intentioned observers have come to see it as a metaphor. Switzerland would not present itself with the means to keep up entry past its small Alpine horizon. What’s it about ? Three ministers of their little footwear, when touring overseas.
First sequence on the finish of final July in London. Whereas she got here to take part in a preparatory assembly for COP26, Transport and Setting Minister Simonetta Sommaruga was caught on the Royal Air Pressure base in Northolt. The engine of the tiny jet (9 seats) Cessna Quotation Excel stubbornly refuses to begin. The gadget should be repaired on website, which takes time. Bern subsequently needed to dispatch the federal government’s solely wide-range plane, a Falcon 900 from Dassault Aviation, to repatriate the Federal Councilor within the harbor.
« As quickly as an issue arises on a long-haul flight, there isn’t a different, you must flip again », Thomas Hurter, Swiss MP and pilot
Second incident, a couple of days later, with the identical Falcon. Man Parmelin, president of the Confederation in workplace, should be worn pale to the Emperor of Japan Naruhito who’s ready for him in Tokyo. Attributable to a technical drawback, and because it flew over Jap Europe shortly after taking off from Bern, the plane needed to make a humiliating U-turn. The Federal Councilor will nonetheless arrive in time for the official opening of the Olympic Video games within the Japanese capital, after having to take an airliner.
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