Tempers ran high in parliament

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Parliament has given three days to politically seal the end of Credit Suisse. The discussion on the first day of the session was emotional and lasted well into the night.

The responsible Minister of Finance, Karin Keller-Sutter (59), said in her statement to the Council of States that she can clearly understand the mood in the House of Representatives. “I heard anger, frustration, sometimes helplessness.” She explained that she had been experiencing the same feelings for the past few weeks. “My motivation was to avert damage to this country.”

The first day of the session in five emotional acts.

Both councils largely engaged in symbolic politics on Tuesday. Because the Federal Council has already approved the discussed loans for federal guarantees in the amount of 109 billion francs. The councils can no longer ignore it.

Yet the need to speak in Parliament was great. Several times it was said that it was unsatisfactory that the Bundesrat had to resort again to the emergency law – and that the parliament had not much more to say. At the same time, FDP chairman and Council of States Thierry Burkart (47) warned against too high expectations. “Certain things can never be regulated, including: decency, trust and humility.”

The anger of the parliamentarians was particularly felt on the carpeted floor of the CS. These were “greedy for more profit and took too much risk”, criticized Peter Hegglin (62), member of the Central Council of States. Those in charge of the bank ignored risks and learned nothing from the past.

SP State Councilor Roberto Zanetti (68) even spoke of ‘banksters’ based on the term gangster. He has more respect for an ‘ordinary bank robber’, because ‘he takes a considerably greater entrepreneurial risk than all those smarties on Bahnhofstrasse and Wall Street’, he raged in the ‘Chambre de Réflexion’. The bankers posed as “know-it-alls and have now driven a bank into the wall for the second time”.

SVP chairman Marco Chiesa (48) also spoke into the microphone with a lot of anger in his stomach: ‘Basta’, he shouted into the room. Parliament must now ensure that such a thing does not happen again. Even more serious than the collapse of the traditional and representative bank is the loss of confidence in Switzerland, Chiesa said. “Switzerland, as an immovable haven of stability and security, is melting like snow in the sun.”

The demise of CS was a “great, bitter disappointment for all of Switzerland,” says Central Councilor Heidi Z’graggen (57) about CS’s story. However, it is not just the top floor of the bank that is to blame, but an accumulation of several individual omissions that “led to the total collapse of the Bank Credit Suisse system”.

The chosen solution was short-lived and could not be used a second time for a tottering UBS, warned EVP chair and national councilor Lilian Studer (45). It is now necessary to investigate how this could have come to this, the municipality said. In addition, the disappointed politicians called out their voices to call those responsible to account.

Even though the negative feelings and voices clearly predominated in the Council, a glimmer of hope flashed in between. Federal Councilor Karin Keller-Sutter made it clear once again in the Council of States: “Ultimately, we found the chosen solution to be the best under the given circumstances.”

The FDP magistrate received support from, among others, her party colleague, the Glarner Council of States Thomas Hefti (63). He has difficulty with the fact that the solution he found “was immediately harmed in many places”. He hopes that the “prescribed treatment will catch on”, especially for CS employees. If it is true that there is a shortage of skilled labor everywhere and that personnel are being sought, “there may be a glimmer of hope after all”.

And the Greens are also hopeful. In view of the CS debacle, they reiterated their call for the unbundling of commercial and investment banks. “I hope there is a majority for this time,” said Adèle Thorens Goumaz (51), a member of the Greens.

Source:Blick