The youngest wants to save the old age provision: Andri Silberschmidt’s coup

What happened then is now called the “Miracle of Bern” by the FDP. The Council wanted a counter-proposal and made use of a proposal from the 2020 pension scheme. The bill had no chance at the time. Now the National Council has given it a second life: by 93 against 92 votes, the Grand Chamber instructed the responsible committee to draw up a draft for an AHV debt brake.

On paper, he has the necessary majority

Time is running out. The Commission of the National Board of Social Security and Health (SGK-N) will meet tomorrow Monday for an extraordinary meeting. This has the duration of a football match – after 90 minutes the text must be complete. On paper, Silberschmidt has the necessary majority: 13 of the 25 committee members belong to the FDP, GLP and SVP, who voted in favor of rejection and a counter-proposal. However, it is far from certain that a measurable result will emerge at the end of the meeting.

Three days after the coup, he walks through the grounds of the Swiss Economic Forum in Interlaken BE. Peter Spuhler (64), patron of Stadler Rail, in a blue Yves Klein suit and white sneakers, pats him on the shoulder. Silberschmidt is doing great in Bern, said the former SVP National Councilor: “Well, there are not only young left-wing women there.”

While Silberschmidt maintains contact with former banking colleagues and start-ups, he eats an ice cream and types notes on his mobile phone for the next panel. The National Council will be asked on stage what it promises to the founders. And Silberschmidt will say: “Switzerland will not only have three or five unicorns in the future, but twenty.” Unicorns are start-ups worth more than a billion dollars.

Self-founder of a start-up

It’s his world. A few years ago he founded the gastronomic start-up Kaisin with friends, which now serves poké bowls at ten locations, turnover: 7.5 million francs. He currently works as secretary of the board of directors at the logistics company Planzer, is a member of the board of directors of Jucker Farm AG, member of the supervisory board of the Zurich Apartment Foundation for Large Families, chairman of the umbrella organization for graduates from colleges and works with the NGO Aiducation to ensure that talents come from Kenya or the Philippines for scholarships.

“I dance at a lot of weddings,” says Silberschmidt. At the age of 29, he has moved as much as others in his life. No alcohol during the week, lots of exercise and eight hours of sleep – that’s his “magic trick”, that makes him efficient. “While others are getting sober and chilling, I’m writing a position paper.”

That wasn’t always the case. As a teenager, Silberschmidt wore baggy pants, listened to rap music, and smoked weed. After two years of Latin, he dropped out of high school. On the first day of his banking training at ZKB, Mr. Widmer, the teacher at the time, said to him, “But it doesn’t work that way here.”

After the August 1 speech on the Bürkliplatz, which he was allowed to give as a pen, things clicked, says Silberschmidt: he was not a socialist, the young SVP was too conservative for him, so he joined the Young Liberals. In Hinwil ZH, where he grew up, he founded a neighborhood party. At the age of 22 he was chairman of the Young Liberals, at the age of 23 he was elected to the city parliament of Zurich and a year later to the National Council. The pendant had become a nerd.

Silberschmidt found allies in the Green Liberals

If there is a counter-proposal to the pension initiative, Silberschmidt could crown his first legislature with a great success. But it won’t be easy. The SP has already announced fundamental resistance: “We will fight tooth and nail against an increase in the retirement age,” says Mattea Meyer (35).

As a member of the SGK-N, the SP co-chair will also decide tomorrow on the counter-proposal: “We categorically reject an automatic mechanism to raise the retirement age or reduce pensions.”

Silberschmidt found allies in the Green Liberals. Vice President Melanie Mettler (45) puts it this way: “The initiative has identified a problem.” The wage contributions of the baby boomers are not enough for the AHV pensions of the long-lived baby boomers. Although the 30 to 55-year-olds are doing more and more work today, there is a risk of a financial shortfall of around CHF 100 billion by 2050, says the Bernese National Councilor. “In these cohorts, a larger proportion are working at higher rates, but because there are just so many fewer people than the baby boomers, it’s still not enough.”

The financing of the AHV is a major concern for the Swiss

Raising the retirement age is just a last option for Mettler. Because it doesn’t have the hoped-for effect: “Those who can afford it retire earlier today.” Moreover, a temporary measure will affect the same low birth cohorts again. For Mettler, the counterproposal is a “pure impulse” that forces politicians to act: “It’s about fairness between the generations.”

Silberschmidt means it. The financing of the AHV is one of the country’s main concerns. “If we do nothing, purchasing power will decrease and prosperity will decrease.” The counter-proposal contains a “safety mechanism”: if there is no reform from the Federal Council, automatic mechanisms will come into effect. Exactly what they look like is still open, raising the retirement age is just one of many instruments. “I put my hand in the fire that no one has to work until the age of 67 for the next ten years.”