After Schmid-Federer’s resignation as president: now the entire Red Cross Council has to leave

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Barbara Schmid-Federer (57) resigned as president of the Swiss Red Cross (SRK) on Friday – “allegedly for health reasons”. This departure was preceded by criticism of her role in the dismissal of SRK director Markus Mader.

But the Red Cross is far from calm. Insiders say more will be needed to get the organization back on track. The entire Red Cross Council must make way for a new start, say representatives of the four rescue organizations and the 24 cantonal associations that form the backbone of the Swiss Red Cross, Switzerland’s oldest humanitarian organization.

“It needs to be professionalized now,” says one of them. In return, the rescue organizations will demand that the Red Cross Council elections scheduled for June 24 be postponed and that the Council be completely re-staffed. According to information from Blick, a corresponding application is being prepared.

There is a fear that nothing will change if current vice presidents Matteo Pedrazzini and Hans Jürg Steiner stay on board. Former SRK director Ruth Voggensperger called on Radio SRF to also resign the two. Others, as described, would find it better to clean up. Otherwise, the remaining council members would be criticized.

Commission is to find new people

An independent committee must now look for suitable candidates. This is the only way to make a fresh start. “With today’s construction, we can’t go any further,” says a representative of an SRC organization. After all, an investigative report into the firing of former SRK director Markus Mader not only found that Schmid-Federer had shown “little aptitude and will to lead”. The report criticized the entire Red Cross Council.

From the point of view of several people, the beginning of today’s evil is almost exactly 23 years ago. On Wednesday, June 7, 2000, the Swiss Red Cross and the Australian Central Science Laboratory (CSL) announced that the SRC was selling the industrial part of the central laboratory in Bern to the group.

Millions for the SRK

The blood plasma deal flushed the Red Cross 860 million francs into the treasury. And since then, the city of Bern has been happy to host a pharmaceutical company with more than 1,800 employees, CSL Behring.

But within the Swiss Red Cross, the new wealth sparked greed. The headquarters in Bern grew. The cantonal associations increasingly complained about their loss of power.

It was a “coup”

The conflict within the organization already manifested itself when SRK chairman Thomas Heiniger (66) left in the autumn of 2021. The former governing council of the FDP in Zurich had only been chairman of the Red Cross for two years. The dispute was openly acknowledged in the press release about his departure. Within the SRK, there are different views on the “centralist versus federalist approach”.

Today, some speak of a “coup d’état” by former CVP National Councilor and former President of the SRK Canton of Zurich, Barbara Schmid-Federer, against Heiniger. It could not go well with a former cantonal chairman at the head of the Red Cross Council, it is said today.

Donations plummeted

But now a rethink is taking place. Because since the quarrels surrounding the waiver of former director Mader in December 2022, according to those involved, donations at a national level have collapsed “en masse”. However, compared to the newspapers of “CH Media”, Schmid-Federer is now putting things into perspective again. The continued loyalty of the donors has so far prevented serious consequences.

On the other hand, the SRK had confirmed to the Sunday newspaper that although existing donors had “so far remained loyal”, the values ​​for new donor recruitment were “significantly lower than in the previous year”. And there is feedback from private large sponsors “that they are waiting for the situation to be clarified with donations”.

And according to information from Blick, donations are also missing in the individual cantons. That is why various subdistrict associations have now noticed that things cannot go on like this. “Because the Swiss Red Cross is on fire!” says a source.

Source:Blick