When Simonetta Sommaruga (62) changed position to Albert Rösti (55), there were a few conflicting comments: the new head of the Department of Environment, Transport, Energy and Communication (UVEK) wanted a picture of a Swiss flag in the office of his predecessor hung.
But, as Rösti recently lamented, she didn’t want to leave it to him. The filmmaker Fernand Melgar (61) donated the flag image to the Confederation in 2018. The work of artist Christine Isperian depicts Switzerland as a multicultural patchwork quilt – and as a Christmas miracle, Rösti is allowed to keep it anyway.
Maurer brings cowbells
Karin Keller-Sutter (58), on the other hand, will find white walls. He takes with him the many cowbells that caretaker Finance Minister Ueli Maurer (72) had hung on a specially made frame.
In this sense, you should interpret the answer that the finance department gives to Blick: “All cowbells are the private property of Federal Councilor Ueli Maurer,” said a spokeswoman. “We cannot comment further on this.”
From the local farm
In fact, although the image of the Swiss flag is owned by the Confederacy (and therefore Sommaruga cannot simply dispose of it), Maurer brought the cowbells himself.
And they mean a lot to him, as he told “Landliebe” magazine in 2019: A large bell once carried the leading cow of the herd on his parents’ farm. “It has a particularly deep sound that always reminds me of my house,” said Maurer at the time.
He even took her to the WEF
Another was from his favorite cow when he was a kid. “As a boy I preferred to be outside or in the stable, I loved cleaning cows… Yes, these memories still shape me to this day.”
It is inconceivable that Maurer would simply leave the bells hanging. He even took some to the World Economic Forum (WEF) and had them hung in a room he had for face-to-face meetings at the Davos Convention Center.