2023-11-15 06:47:48
This is a rather rare trip for a French president. Emmanuel Macron begins a state visit to Switzerland this Wednesday, a signal of a warming between the two countries with the relationship with Europe in focus.
In September 2022, Switzerland caught the French authorities cold by announcing its choice of the American F-35 in preference to the French Rafale to modernize its air force, a contract worth more than 6 billion euros. Berne had already shocked the entire European Union in May 2021 by announcing that it would abandon negotiations for a framework agreement with the 27, after years of discussions.
Macron wants a Swiss-EU agreement “as soon as possible”
The Rafale page has now been turned and the Swiss government has resumed communication with Brussels and is preparing to negotiate with the Commission. “This dynamic must materialize,” said an advisor to Emmanuel Macron, specifying that the latter will carry “a message of acceleration” to “relaunch negotiations in order to reach an agreement as quickly as possible”.
“Relations with the EU must be at the center of discussions,” underlines Charles Juillard, president of the Delegation for relations with the French Parliament in an interview with the Keystone-ATS agency. The rapprochement with the EU is a very sensitive political subject in Switzerland. The unions have already expressed their skepticism, as has the country’s leading party, the UDC (radical right).
Good understanding with Alain Berset
The French president and his wife Brigitte will be entitled to the consideration reserved for the most important guests, while these French visits are rare. Besides François Hollande in 2015, only Jacques Chirac in 1998, François Mitterrand in 1983 and Armand Fallières in 1910 had made this trip.
Emmanuel Macron will be greeted as he gets off the plane by Alain Berset, the President of the Confederation. The Swiss press emphasizes that the two men like each other. But the one who remains the most popular member of the Federal Council will leave office at the end of the year. Military honors, meeting with the seven members of the Federal Council, speeches at the Palace of Parliament and gala dinner will mark the first day.
Visit to Cern
That of Thursday, on the other hand, will be much less formal. The president placed it under the sign of Europe. He will visit the Jean Monnet Foundation for Europe in Lausanne before meeting students from the University to talk about the “major societal issues” of the EU.
The economy will also play its role, Switzerland being the third largest investor in France. Emmanuel Macron will thus have the opportunity to meet economic leaders in Lausanne, before taking a special train to Geneva with leaders of start-ups on board. The two-day trip will conclude on a fundamental science note with a visit to Cern, the European laboratory for nuclear research and particle physics, straddling the Franco-Swiss border.
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