Maurer’s husband is studying astronomy

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“Talita kum” is Aramaic and means “Girl, get up”. With these words, Jesus is said to have awakened a child presumed dead. And with the same wording, Obwalden filmmaker Luke Gasser, 57, wants to start a discussion that he thinks has fallen asleep by now.

Gasser’s new film “Talita kum – Silence at the Wrong Time” is dedicated to the “failure of the Catholic Church, politics and media in times of Corona”.
Jörg Gasser (54) is also in the movie. The filmmaker’s cousin was Ueli Maurer’s Minister of State from 2016 to 2019 and until recently CEO of the Swiss Bankers Association. In the movie, Jörg Gasser surprises with many explanations.

Mr Gasser, are you a corona denier?
Jorg Gasser: NO. Covid-19 is a fact and I am vaccinated. But I am critical of Switzerland’s sometimes very careless handling of the fears and anxieties of those who do not want to be vaccinated. People were quickly pushed into an undemocratic corner.

Well?
In Switzerland we have the right to say what we think. And when people start keeping quiet for fear of being cornered as tinheads or idiots, something is wrong. The media did not play a good role here. This still concerns people. And I can understand that.

You talk about mandatory vaccinations in your cousin’s movie. You were still CEO of the Bankers Association when you gave the interview. Is your statement about the umbrella organization of Swiss credit institutions correct?
NO. I spoke as a private person in the movie. Employee protection was very important to the Bankers Association, and the Bankers Association has always adhered to applicable regulations.

The movie also talks about the “Great Reset”. It’s about a book by WEF founder Klaus Schwab that inspires conspiracy theorists’ fantasies.
I’m not a conspiracy theorist and neither is my cousin. There is no “Great Reset”, that is, no hierarchical reorganization of the world and no plan where a reboot will be possible. The world is much more chaotic and often dependent on coincidences. Until now, it was too complex for “big minds” to implement any plan. It would be scary if it did, but I don’t think so.

In the movie, you go to Davos with your cousin to talk about the power of DEF.
I haven’t seen the movie yet, and I can only say this: I took part in the WEF as Minister of Foreign Affairs and later as CEO of the Bankers’ Association at a side event organized by Liechtenstein on money laundering. DEF is less important than conspiracy theorists claim.

What do you mean by “junk”?
At DEF, people get together and discuss issues. For the Swiss government, the meeting is very useful to have one-to-one conversations one after another. As Secretary of State, I worked there with Ueli Maurer, such as Steve Mnuchin – he was Donald Trump’s Secretary of the Treasury. It was about the revision of the tax treaty between Switzerland and the USA. Such a conversation is too short, we didn’t have much time. The purpose of the meeting was for the US Secretary to give Entourage the green light to initiate technical talks. This was a normal bilateral meeting – not a fairly trivial new world order.

The film warns against the Chinese surveillance state. Does the Chinese support the control path in DEF?
No (laughs). When Ueli Maurer and I talked to China, fiscal policy issues were on the agenda, such as how the Swiss financial center could be located in China. We also wanted to know what China thinks about global taxation.

In the movie, your cousin tells you that Klaus Schwab sympathizes with China’s controlling style.
I don’t know what Klaus Schwab thinks about China. I think it’s all about the big question: What do we want to achieve in terms of the “New Silk Road”? To what extent does this affect Switzerland? I can imagine that resonates here. To avoid any misunderstanding: No one in Switzerland is interested in China’s control method.

The film is also about the bottom-up reallocation of capital during the corona pandemic. They say the middle class has no voice. Does this statement apply to a banking union that currently profits from the super-rich?
It is good for both banks and Switzerland for the rich to invest their money in Switzerland. Increasing wealth is not bad. On the other hand, the distribution is bad. It cannot be denied that globally, the rich get richer and the poor get poorer, especially during the pandemic years. This also applies to Switzerland, though to a lesser extent than other countries. We shouldn’t be smug about believing that we can go on as before. Politics needs a clear picture of reality in this country. Also regarding the elections to be held in the fall.

His resignation as CEO of the Bankers Association in January came as a surprise. Does your cousin’s movie have anything to do with it?
Not at all. It was a good time to go. Since autumn we have a new finance minister at Karin Keller-Sutter, the Bankers Association has a new president from 2021 in Marcel Rohner, and we have elections this year. I said I didn’t want to stay until I retired in 2019. What was important to me was that my successor was properly included during the elections.

Raiffeisenbank left the Bankers Association in 2021. Is that why you had to go?

NO. The atmosphere and exchange of ideas with the Board of Directors of the Bankers Association has always been very good and constructive. I really appreciated the exchange of ideas with the President and the entire Board of Directors.

You are originally from humanitarian aid and have worked for the Red Cross in Afghanistan, among other things. Do you even fit on the carpeted floors of the banking world?
It would be a better story for you if there were challenges, as Livia Leu, my former colleague at the Federal Foreign Office, is now suggesting. It was different with me. I’m not a typical banking lobbyist. But at the Bankers’ Association, I achieved some strategic goals in the field of sustainability. I felt it was time to do something different.

You were Ueli Maurer’s Minister of Foreign Affairs. Were you surprised by his resignation last year?
Yes. I assumed he wasn’t going to resign until the legislature was over.

Rumors that Credit Suisse is in bad shape have been circulating since the fall. Is that why you and Maurer cleared the field?
I can only speak for myself. I knew CS was in bad shape – but I only knew what the media was saying. It has nothing to do with my resignation from the Bankers Association. I handed in the job at the end of February and have been busy with other matters ever since. I didn’t sit in front of the live broadcast on March 19, I just noticed the end of Credit Suisse in the newspaper on Monday morning.

According to Sergio Ermotti, the new CEO of UBS, the scars of the CS crisis go back to the last seven years. Do you need to be afraid of the possibly existing Parliamentary Commission of Inquiry (PUK)?
NO. If I had tried to directly influence the administration as Secretary of State, I would have done something wrong. It’s not my job. Even as director of the Bankers’ Association, that was not my job; it was more about strengthening the Swiss financial centre. Everyone has a role to play and I was not involved in the CS crisis. I also doubt that KYB will call me to court. But I think it’s good that you’re working on it. Now the thing is, something like this can’t happen again.

What do you think is the biggest shortcoming?
The PUK will also address the “Too big to fail” regulation, drawn up by an independent commission of experts more than a decade ago. The aim was to prevent a global financial crisis. What was overlooked at the time was that a systemically important bank could also go bankrupt due to internal negligence of all kinds.

Ueli Maurer wanted to roll back the banking regulation.
No, he didn’t want that. The aim of financial market regulation is to have a stable and functioning financial centre. It is true that regulations have been critically questioned; Ueli Maurer did the same. He was not concerned with weak regulation, but with a strong, competitive financial centre. Meanwhile, no regulations were lifted in his time.

Is the Swiss financial center now in ruins?
It doesn’t look like it right now, but the future will show. The world forgets relatively quickly. Similar questions arose after Swissair’s collapse, but Switzerland quickly recouped this damage to its reputation.

You live in Thurgau. What does your own future look like?
I want to be less operational and more strategic. I’m looking around now. And finally I had time for my hobby astronomy. I have long dreamed of relearning something unrelated to my professional past. I am currently taking a distance learning course at the University of Melbourne. This works very well. There are now telescopes that can do what only professional observatories could do. I’m happy when my observatory is set up and the new telescope is finally here.

Source :Blick