National Day Federal Councillor Jans compares Switzerland to a Tinguely machine
In his 1 August speech in Schaffhausen, Federal Councillor Beat Jans (SP) compared Switzerland to a Tinguely machine. It is a creative whole made up of various individual pieces. Switzerland's home is in Europe, he said.
01.08.2025, 13:26
SDA
"If, for example, the USA wants to arbitrarily introduce tariffs of 39 percent against Swiss products, we feel it all the more," said Jans. Switzerland is embedded and networked in Europe, "who knows this better than you in Schaffhausen, on the German side of the Rhine". As someone from Kleinbasel, he shares this special border experience, explained Jans, saying that there are worse neighbors than Switzerland.
The SP Federal Councillor reported on a wide variety of encounters in the course of his work, from the Northwestern Switzerland Yodelling Festival, the anniversary of the debt collection officers in Lucerne, to the 1st of May in Olten SO and the anniversary of the Aids-Hilfe in Zurich.
He meets a wide variety of people at completely different events. Switzerland is making progress by working together: "Working together has made us strong, not going it alone".
More Switzerland for the world
However, Jans also emphasized the skillful negotiation and the Swiss people's focus on their own advantages. In this way, they had secured their ability to act and their interests vis-à-vis the outside world. A little more Switzerland would do the world good, said Jans.
Praise for the Swiss women's national football team and a reference to the Munot, Schaffhausen's landmark, were not to be missed. The fortress was once to be expensively upgraded, but the Peace of Westphalia had made the plan superfluous. "It would be nice if peace could intervene again today," concluded the Federal Councillor.
