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He is one of the most cultured parliamentarians in the Federal Parliament, if not the most cultured: Gerhard Pfister, intellectual and centrist president, former Christian Democratic People’s Party – CVP. Commitment to his party’s Christian origins must be taken into account by everyone who deals with Gerhard Pfister, this sometimes arrogant but actually shy politician who feels committed to democratic culture with impressive intensity.
Right now he documents this attitude again with his factual and succinct warning to members of the FDP government: “These two federal councilors must treat power more responsibly.” The centrist president means that there should be no bloc politics between the FDP and the SVP in the Seventh Collegium, since their numerical superiority after the elections is even less legitimate than before them.
In fact, the Pfister Center can mathematically claim second place in the Federal Council, since their vote share is equal to the Liberals.
But Gerhard Pfister does not want to vote to leave the Federal Council. He simply wants to cement a culture of compromise and consensus in the Swiss government’s policies – in accordance with Kant’s categorical imperative: do as you can imagine, so that it becomes a generally valid rule. A Christian Democrat puts it this way in an interview with SonntagsBlick: “Just because you can do something doesn’t mean you are allowed to do it.”
Immanuel Kant from Königsberg as a model for Bern’s politics?
We are talking about the category of responsible action. Currently, this is not guaranteed by either left-wing greens or right-wing populism: on the one hand, climate-believing anti-capitalism, expressed in the paternalism of citizens; on the other hand, a cynical solution to problems presented as the only expression of the will of the people.
Both camps always need parliamentary support from the center. First of all, they are courting the FDP, which once set the tone in the concert of agreement, and is now weakened by the election results and fascinated by the pretense of the SVP.
But Switzerland faces problems for which neither the left nor the right can find solutions. Left-green kids and right-wing machos have been lost in European politics, migration policy and climate policy for too long. Topics that signal the seriousness of the times belong to adults.
In the hands of responsible parties.
Who are these parties? In Switzerland these are liberals, centrists and social democrats; In Europe these are liberals, Christian democrats and social democrats; It is political forces that feel committed to an open society – an economically and socially just democracy.
Historical responsibility of the parties to the European West.
Gerhard Pfister’s warning not to engage in politics simply because you can, on the contrary, includes a call to do what needs to be done – without short-sighted compromises, completely focused on what is necessary. It will be the return of three long-standing and distinguished political families in their own footsteps.
The return of the original bourgeois culture to politics: dispute and knowledge and compromise and again dispute and new knowledge – trial and error as a dialectic of progress.
Thanks to this fundamentally democratic dynamic, no issue goes unmentioned in the conflict of opinions between competing parties. To put it in classic Swiss terms: joyful in debate and aware of what you don’t do, although you can.
Yes, democracy is, again paraphrasing Kant, an order of disorder. This is anarchy of the mind. To do this, he needs caring guardians:
Responsible Parties.
Source: Blick
I am David Miller, a highly experienced news reporter and author for 24 Instant News. I specialize in opinion pieces and have written extensively on current events, politics, social issues, and more. My writing has been featured in major publications such as The New York Times, The Guardian, and BBC News. I strive to be fair-minded while also producing thought-provoking content that encourages readers to engage with the topics I discuss.
