A look behind the walls: 70,000 guests visit the federal building in Bern

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As a reporter from the Keystone-SDA news agency reported, people sometimes waited hours before they could visit the National Council and the Council of States, for example. Several hundred people lined up at the other federal buildings and the National Bank to get in. The event received mostly positive responses.

Overall project manager Andreas Schilter regretted the long waiting times. “We are sorry that not everyone got to see what they were hoping for,” he said in a statement on Sunday. Security checks are unavoidable at a major event like this. Most visitors would have shown understanding for this. All visitors over the age of 16 had to undergo an identity check and present official ID to security personnel.

Among other things, a tangible gold bar in the National Bank, the “Golden Book” with the signature of Queen Elizabeth II in the Department of Foreign Affairs, the menus for state guests in the Hotel Bellevue Palace and the open office doors in the Parliament building attracted special attention from the public. . Among others, Federal President Alain Berset, Federal Councilor Elisabeth Baume-Schneider and President of the National Bank, Thomas Jordan, were present.

The reason for the open “Federal Mile” on Saturday and Sunday was the 175th anniversary of the Swiss Federal Constitution – the birth of the modern federal state. On September 12, 1848, when the federal constitution came into effect, the confederation of states of the Old Confederation became a federal state, making it the first democracy in Europe since ancient times.

(SDA)

Source:Blick