Geneva (dpa) – It’s a little Swiss joke: if you want to find the faultline
that divides Switzerland into two worlds, check for the folk who vaunt
a dish of pan-fried potatoes as balm for the soul and their gift to mankind.
“Roesti”, as the dish is known, is in fact popular with most Swiss, but
the German speakers consider it their own. In humorous mode, the Swiss
say the speakers of French, Italian and Romansch in the country’s west
live beyond the Roesti Rift that divides the country.
Like geological rifts, it seems to be widening, with fears growing that
the Swiss are separating into two nations like the Belgians.
Last November the Swiss held a referendum on reducing military spending
and the split could hardly have been clearer. German speakers voted en
masse against cuts, Romance-language speakers voted by a majority in favour.
It was the same story with a proposal to reduce to 62 the age at which
Swiss retire on a full pension. Had the vote only been taken in Western
Switzerland and Ticino, it would have won comfortably.
But it was outvoted by German-speaking Swiss, who make up two- thirds of
the population and saw no virtue in the plan. The feeling is now growing
that it doesn’t matter what the Romance-language group want: they’ll be
ignored.
“We have to avoid Switzerland drifting apart into separate bits,” says
Social Welfare Minister Ruth Dreifuss.
“You only have to imagine now how it would be if a charismatic politician
stood up and started ripping into the German-speakers and painting a vision
of Francophone autonomy. You could just say goodbye to Switzerland as we
know it,” opined a leading newspaper, Blick.
One of its French-language counterparts, Le Temps, warned that Switzerland
could well “go Belgian”, a reference to the deep rift between French-speaking
Walloons and Dutch-speaking Flemings that has pulled their country in two.
“The problem starts when the rift grows. That is exactly what is happening
now in Switzerland,” it observed.
The Western Swiss and the Italian-speakers in Ticino reckon there is little
hope left trying to internationalize, reduce military spending or strengthen
federalism, because German speakers have fundamentally different views
on social policy, foreign affairs, defence and transport.
Referenda are an important part of Switzerland’s grassroots- democracy
system.
Switzerland’s federal statistics bureau has calculated that referendum
proposals that won majorities in the Romance-language area have been outvoted
in the nation as a whole more than 20 times since 1981.
Among the deepest disappointments was the rejection a year ago of a compulsory
insurance plan to provide paid maternity leave. The five Francophone cantons
and Ticino backed it; the conservative majority elsewhere voted it down.
Berne political scientist Hans Hirter believes the varying stances on social-welfare
issues come from the “deep scars that the Depression (of the 1930s) left
in the minds of the Romance Swiss”, while German-speakers always tend to
think, “We can’t afford that.”
Some more cracking along the Roesti Rift is a near certainty next March
when the Swiss vote in a referendum on whether to seek membership in the
European Union.
German-speakers are great believers in Switzerland’s tradition of splendid
isolation whereas French and Italian-speakers like the idea of integration
with the rest of Europe. Western Switzerland voted solidly in 1992 to enter
the European Economic Area, a loose association with the E.U., but was
outvoted by the German-speakers.
Abroad, Swiss leaders are fond of holding up their homeland as a good example
of how to integrate multiple ethnic groups and avoid Balkan-style bloodshed.
That sticks in the maw of some French- speakers.
“The battle to see if this federation can survive has already begun,” says
Jacques Picet, founder of the Francophone Swiss news magazine L’Hebdo.
