About rope teams, power and money – how the crash at the Red Cross came about

It was a disaster for an aid organization that received particularly high donations during the Christmas month and campaigned as “2 x Christmas”: on December 15, 2022, the Red Cross Council, the strategic governing body of the Swiss Red Cross (SRC), announced the separation from former director Markus Mader (59). “The reason is a different view of the leadership and organization of the SRK and the individual member organizations,” said the council, chaired by former CVP councilor Barbara Schmid-Federer (57).

Tears would have flowed, four out of ten councilors resigned in protest. Among them is former SVP and BDP National Councilor Brigitta Gadient, who represents the SRC in the international Red Cross movement as vice president.

What happened in this power struggle in detail, why this scandal came about, is unclear and controversial. The image of the slain immediately found its way to the media. Retired councilor Dieter Widmer, responsible for human resources and finance, as well as Mader’s supporter, was quoted in the “Tages-Anzeiger”: “I am sorry for all the employees and the many volunteers of the SRC, who share our values. and high morale, while the leadership cannot find a good solution.”

However, it is less about “high morale” than old rope teams at work, beneficiaries being defended. And it’s about politics and alpha animals.

Former ICRC delegate Mader has been the strong man at SRC headquarters for nearly 15 years, also pushing the projects abroad. He is very popular at the headquarters with his 500 employees. Many of the 24 canton associations that have a majority vote in the SRC parliament, but see centralization and power gains in Bern, were less satisfied. They feared losing control and influence, also financially. There was always tension, reports were written, improvements were demanded and, depending on one’s point of view, eventually achieved.

Until a turning point came in March 2022: Schmid-Federer, a well-known former CVP politician, was elected. Supported by the canton associations, she reached the top of the SRK. Against the will of the dominant “nomenklatura” in the SRC.

As early as 2019, when Annemarie Huber-Hotz (FDP) stepped down, Vice President Schmid-Federer was the favorite for the presidency: she was chair of the Zurich Red Cross and a member of the Red Cross Council.

But Huber-Hotz did not want the CVP woman as a successor, according to insiders. She looked for a replacement and found what she was looking for in the person of her fellow party member Thomas Heiniger, who had just left the director of health in the canton of Zurich.

The SRK has traditionally been a stronghold of the FDP. Zurich FDP Federal Councilor Jakob Dubs is considered to be the first president of the organization founded in 1866. The second president, Karl Schenk, was also liberal and many others followed suit. Since 2001, René Rhinow (former FDP member of the Council of States), Annemarie Huber-Hotz (former FDP chancellor) and most recently Thomas Heiniger have headed the SRK.

In 2022, Schmid-Federer broke through this phalanx – with the help of the cantonal associations that supported them. And who had previously turned against their predecessor Heiniger, who gave up the position after only two years. According to the SRK, “various ideas about a centralized or federalist approach” led to the split. Director Mader lost an important anchor with him.

Some saw Schmid-Federer as the driving force behind Heiniger’s departure. The faithful of former president Huber-Hotz, who died in August 2019, had a hard time with the woman from Zurich. One of them, according to observers, was the influential Vice President Brigitta Gadient, who also succeeded Huber-Hotz in 2021 as chair of the Banking Ombudsman Foundation.

“Schmid-Federer was a confounding factor,” says one. This was apparent, for example, from a lecture at the Dies Academicus of the Theological University in Chur, where the new SRC chairman Schmid-Federer explained her ideas in October 2022. “Help without asking who” is one. Whether they are Ukraine refugees or boat people: it doesn’t matter. But not everyone in the Red Cross Council saw it that way.

This was also reflected in the money: “The SRK has an enormous amount of donations. We take in a lot and spend a lot. Questions about the money are allowed,” she said. This is not without explosives. Im, SRK is also about a lot of money. For example, in the SRC Humanitarian Foundation, there is nearly a billion Swiss francs ready to be invested, currently in a fund at the Geneva-based private bank Pictet. The SRK received 50 million in gifts and legacies in 2021, compared to 65 million a year earlier. Under Schmid-Federer, the SRC can be expected to scrutinize cash flows and usage at home and abroad.

It is unclear how the SRK will proceed. Director Mader has not yet been formally fired. An amicable solution still seems possible. A further escalation is also conceivable and currently likely. In the background, various forces are at work that want to ‘reconquer’ territory.

The question of how and why the scandal came about is being investigated by the SRC business review committee, possibly with the involvement of external experts.

The stakes are high, the SRC is considered the largest humanitarian organization in Switzerland. “It is involved in health and daily life support, integration and migration, as well as search, rescue and disaster response,” says its 2021 annual report. 500,000 members, 50,100 volunteers, 5,300 employees, including 500 at its Bern has been counted by the SRC in 2021. The volunteers work more than 2.6 million hours on a voluntary basis.

The SRK owns 24 cantonal associations, four rescue organizations, the blood donation service and the Red Cross service. It is also in use in 38 other countries. (aargauerzeitung.ch)