Editorial on Europe and immigration: The guillotine clause loses its horror

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It’s going to be wintery. The temperatures are dropping and the days are also getting shorter for a courageous federal councilor from Ticino. Ignazio Cassis, studied medicine and a doctor, was elected to the government to applause in 2017 and outwardly immortalized with his statement about the ‘reset button’ in European politics, promises the nation again and again, once and for all, the great agreement with the European Union, the institutional regulation of bilateral treaties. Despite all warnings about the loss of sovereignty.

He fearlessly deals with domestic political attacks. He responds to criticism of Swiss voting behavior in a UN resolution on the Gaza war with an essay against anti-Semitism in the ‘NZZ’. He remains silent about the green attack on his seat in the Federal Council, but also about the increasingly louder criticism of the magic formula that ultimately refers to him. Now the unions are torpedoing him at the moment of a small but important triumph and taking over power. The responsible magistrate, who had deployed all forces with the best intentions, is once again on the defensive.

In any case, the European debate remains purely a mirror battle, as long as one avoids the big problem: migration. When SonntagsBlick interviewed SVP magnate Christoph Blocher two weeks ago, it became clear: the bilateral contracts leave Herrliberg colder than ever before. And SVP Energy Minister Albert Rösti no longer makes it a secret that he thinks the electricity agreement is overestimated.

At the same time, the pressure on the free movement of people increases with every day people sit on crowded trains or look in vain for an apartment. Anyone who speaks out against immigration wins elections. The ominous guillotine clause, the existential-ultimate link between all central agreements between Switzerland and the EU, is increasingly losing its horror.

How aware the state government is of this situation is a matter of official secrecy. In any case, Ignazio Cassis is moving towards the start of the cold season with the European file. Without complaint until the end, like the lyre man in Schubert’s “Winterreise”.

Source:Blick