Emblematic conservative figure Christoph Blocher told People’s Party members that accepting the EU framework accord would be tantamount to ‘suicide for Switzerland’. Current president Ueli Maurer struck a more nuanced note. Speaking to over 1,000 members of the right-wing People’s Party in Zurich on Friday night, Blocher said that the framework accord – which Switzerland and the European Union have been struggling to negotiate for five years – was a “classic contract of subjugation”. Raising again the spectre of a “takeover” of foreign law and judges (a fear that was rejected by Swiss voters in a ballot last November), Blocher claimed that signing the accord would be harmful for competitiveness and would threaten jobs, salaries, and even social harmony. He criticised the Swiss ruling class, who he said were like rabbits caught in front of Brussels’ headlamps and who receive their “commanding orders” from the economiesuisse business federation. Should the accord be accepted by ...
