Frank A. Meyer – column: One to one to one

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Now parliamentarians are demanding payment for the Gotthard Tunnel. One of their representatives is Simon Stadler of Uri, who can certainly be considered a historical expert on this subject, since Uri had already tormented Leventina in the Old Confederacy.

If you are driving through Gotthard, you must pay. Like on Brenner or Mont Blanc. Switzerland and freedom are almost fundamental opposites.

So what’s the problem? Ticino!

Liberal National Council member Alex Farinelli states: “We Ticino will have to pay to enter the rest of Switzerland.” Thus, the slogan against the payment for the Gotthard Tunnel is: “Ticino must not be discriminated against.”

This well-intentioned proposal is an incorrect proposal.

Ticino is indeed a canton of Italian-speaking culture – the “sun room” of Helvetia, as the south of the country is affably praised. But the beautiful part of the country is more than a place for recreation and vacations, much more:

Ticino is Switzerland!

On September 12, 175 years ago, a federal state was created as we live it today: as a multilingual nation whose linguistic cultures are not only equal, but also have equal weight:

German-speaking Switzerland is Switzerland, French-speaking Switzerland is Switzerland, Italian-speaking Switzerland is Switzerland.
One to one.

What would Switzerland be without other Swiss people? You wouldn’t! The nation of 1848 is inconceivable without its linguistic cultures.

So the Gotthard tunnel fee would not be a “Ticino entry fee” in terms of public policy, but a customs duty between Switzerland and Switzerland – an absurdity.

And a historical mistake condensed into a historical legend: in the festival fetish, August 1 is a national holiday, which means not Switzerland at all, but the old Swiss Confederation. Although it preceded modern Switzerland, it also ended on September 12, 1848.

The mistake of the Swiss national holiday has political reasons: they did not want to expect unlucky Catholics to bear the date of the founding of a modern federal state – and invented a historical day that never existed, along with a founding story that is nothing but a myth.

Yes, the old Confederation also meant freedom: freedom from foreign powers – freedom in relation to the outside world.

On the other hand, the liberal freedom of 1848 is the freedom of the citizen: freedom from social forces is internal freedom.

No, Ticino is not the nice sunny south that you would paternalistically discriminate with an entrance ticket to Gotthard.

Il Ticino and Swizzer!

Source: Blick