How Trump is taking root in Swiss minds | SVP and right-wing conservatives react to the tariff hammer with absurd conspiracy theories.

by BezugssystemCH1903

6 comments

  1. Weren’t some SVP politicians wishing Trump would win over Kamala?

  2. Translation:

    >__How Trump is taking root in Swiss minds__

    >__The SVP and right-wing conservatives respond to the tariff hammer with absurd conspiracy theories.__

    >You don’t need an Einstein-level IQ to understand how Switzerland must respond to Donald Trump’s tariff hammer: seek new trading partners, reach an agreement with the EU, and avoid waging a gung-ho war with the USA. Realistically, there is no alternative. Economists from Economiesuisse, as well as the NZZ and the Social Democrats, see it the same way.

    >Realistically, it is also clear that the Swiss economy faces a serious challenge, likely the most serious in decades. That is why unity is the order of the day. The tariff hammer debacle is neither the fault of the President of the Confederation nor of the Federal Council as a whole. Against an American president whose mental state is increasingly being questioned and whose narcissism and arbitrariness know no bounds, even the best diplomats are powerless – and in that respect, Switzerland is not lacking.

    >__Are gold exports really sensible__

    >This does not mean that criticism is off limits. Most Swiss citizens were probably surprised to discover that gold exports make up a significant share of our exports, and are now wondering whether this is truly sensible. Likewise, one can question the dominance of pharmaceutical exports. These discussions, however, should take place in an orderly manner, in everyone’s interest.

    >Unfortunately, the signs for that are not good. Instead of unity and reasonable debate, we face discord and conspiracy theories of the kind familiar from the United States. The SVP cannot accept that they backed the wrong horse with Trump. Instead, they turn reality on its head. For example, banker and SVP National Councillor Thomas Matter has reached the astonishing conclusion that it is not the US president who is the father of the tariff hammer, but the EU.

    >Matter’s bizarre logic reads as follows: “The USA is already accusing our country of having created indirect trade barriers by adopting EU regulations (notably in the areas of environment and food). That is why Switzerland is being punished with reciprocal tariffs.”

    >Yet Matter must still be counted among the moderates, when compared to Markus Somm. The editor-in-chief of the Nebelspalter – a publication that largely takes place out of public view – has recently begun indulging in conspiracy theories of QAnon proportions. This is all the more remarkable as Somm – once a promising federal politics journalist for the Tages-Anzeiger, who took decidedly left-wing positions – then embarked on his long march to the right, to the point where he was at one stage even considered a possible editor-in-chief for the NZZ.

    >Today, he has definitively landed in the crank corner, as his latest commentary shows. According to Somm, the Federal Council and Karin Keller-Sutter were actually well on their way to negotiating a deal that would have been very advantageous for Switzerland. However, Federal Councillors Beat Jans and Ignazio Cassis supposedly did not like this. Therefore, the two allegedly undermined this deal with so-called co-reports.

    >Specifically, Somm accuses Justice Minister Jans and his staff of the following: “They are currently fully exploiting the Trump-phobia in the country to sell their botched agreements to the people: one must, given the geopolitical madness in America, align with the EU at any cost. Therefore, Jans sabotaged the deal with the USA – he would never admit to that, but that was the result.”

    >The foreign minister, meanwhile, is in the clutches of a Deep State. Somm writes: “Cassis is not a Europhile zealot, but he heads the FDFA, a department that has the highest density of Europhile zealots in Europe, if not the world. Here work people, especially diplomats, who have never given up their dream of joining the EU, even if about 70 percent of their bosses, the Swiss people, want nothing to do with it. A kind of parallel government of Europhiles has been established here. A minority that dictates its wishes to the majority.”

    >According to Somm, Jans and the Europhiles managed, with the help of nasty tricks, to prevent a deal with the USA. Therefore, Somm speaks of a “Category 1 poison scandal.”

    >Because of its multilingualism and its nature as a direct democracy, Switzerland is inclined toward compromise. Until now, it seemed therefore immune to a deep societal split of the kind experienced in the USA. Even the SVP, though staunchly conservative and anti-EU, still seemed far removed from MAGA madness.

    >__MAGA methods have arrived in Switzerland__

    >We have to rethink that. Neither Matter nor Somm are dim-witted right-wing extremists with shaved heads, bomber jackets, boots, and an IQ lower than their shoe size. One is a successful banker, the other was, or at least was considered, one of the leading political journalists in this country. Both know what they are doing. But they cannot admit that they were wrong about Trump. Instead, they copy the US president’s method and try to cover up their mistake with ever more absurd conspiracy theories.

    >That is a very bad omen for our country. Instead of fighting the tariff hammer with sensible strategies and methods, we must expect to be heading toward Trump-style conditions, where no conspiracy theory is too absurd for the right to use against the EU and the Europhiles, and to incite rural against urban populations.

    >That should frighten us even more than the American tariff hammer.

  3. I would not label this as Trump, but rather MAGA. It is quite likely that Trump is not actually all there, and someone else is pulling the strings.

    It is very likely the right-wing nutters (let us call them MSGA) were looking for an excuse to implement some of MAGA’s ideas (kick out all foreigners). I would love them to do it and only after realise there is no one left to pick crops and no more nurses or doctors in the hospitals (all very PLR/UDC/VL domains).

    However, I would take the conclusion of that article with a grain of salt:

    I know of no politician (left, right or centre) that can admit when they are wrong and who does not try to cover-up / deflect attention away from their errors. All politicians do this, every single F-ing one.

  4. Well nothing new, SVP and FDP are trumpist with a different mask for a long time.

  6. They’re quoting Nebelspalter. Question: does anyone know anyone who actually reads Nebelspalter?

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