Swiss Review 5/2020

Swiss Review / September 2020 / No.5 31 Attorney General of Switzerland Michael Lauber stands down Amid growing political pressure, Switzerland’s chief pros- ecutor, Attorney General Michael Lauber has resigned and is due to leave his post at the end of the year. Lauber has been accused of serious misconduct, having had a secret meeting with FIFA president Gianni Infantino despite the fact that he was investigating football’s governing body at the time. Lauber’s resignation is not the end of the matter. Impeachment proceedings against the Attorney General are still ongoing, while Swiss prosecutors opened a crimi- nal investigation into Infantino in July. (MUL) More emigration than immigration Immigration from the EU is a major issue in Swiss politics. However, emigration from Switzerland outstripped immi- gration from abroad in the second quarter of 2020. There are two main reasons for this: the relative deterioration of the Swiss economy, and restrictions on people entering the country due to the pandemic. (MUL) Crypto – federal prosecutors open criminal probe For decades, Swiss company Crypto AG manufactured encryptiondevices that helped foreign intelligence services to snoop on other countries (see “Swiss Review” 3/2020). By allowing the Office of the Attorney General of Switzer- land to investigate, the Federal Council has now paved the way for criminal proceedings. The government canblock any criminal proceedings that it believes would seriously jeopardise Switzerland’s interests. Evidently, it has con- cluded that investigating Crypto poses no such threat. (MUL) Crypto – successor company in trouble Crypto AG has been defunct for years. Now successor com- pany Crypto International AG (based inZug) is also in trou- ble, having had to lay off 80 of its 82 staff this summer. This ismainly because Crypto International is currently banned from exporting its encryption devices. (MUL) COVID-19 scuppers popular initiative The “e-votingmoratorium” popular initiative is nowoff the agenda. Its supporters have abandoned their attempt to col- lect the necessary signatures. According to the initiative committee, which includes the National Councillors Franz Grüter (SVP) and Balthasar Glättli (Greens), collecting 100,000 signatures in time was looking increasingly im- possible. Social distancing and hygienemeasures had com- plicated the exercise. (MUL) Petra Gössi Is she up to the job? When Petra Gössi was elected leader of the Liber- als (FDP) in 2016, fewpeople knew the then 40-year-old lawyer from the canton of Schwyz. Although she had been a member of the Na- tional Council for five years, Gössi had never marked herself out as a political heavyweight. This soon changed. In 2017, Gössi skilfully saw to it that the FDP faction leader and man sitting next to her in parlia- ment, Ignazio Cassis, was elected to the Federal Council. Climate change then became an issue, driving tens of thousands of mainly young dissatisfied people on to Switzerland’s streets. Their ire was partly directed at the FDP, which, together with the SVP, hadwatered down the proposed revision of the CO 2 Act in 2018. By the time elec- tion year came around, Switzerland’s “business party” had run into a headwind. Therewas disgruntlement among an element of grassroots voters too. The party leader responded by pulling off a spectacular ide- ological volte-face. Suddenly, incentives such as a CO 2 tax on airline ticketswere no longer taboo. The rank and file voiced support for their leader’s U-turn, a survey of party members allowing Gössi to silence critics within the party who had accused her of opportunism in the wake of this policy reversal. The FDP consequently emerged relatively unscathed from last autumn’s federal elections, despite the green landslide. Although the party lost more than one per cent, pre-elec- tion forecasts had suggestedworse. Gössi is nowfirmly in charge, with partymembers having recently voted her in for another two years as FDP leader. She is one of Switzerland’s longest-serving party leaders currently in office. The sceptics fell silent quite some time ago. Gössi is indeed up to the job. THEODORA PETER Top Pick News More news at www.revue.ch