Country faces one of its most difficult challenges in recent times

The guest speaker on the occasion of Swiss National Day on 1 August this year was Kaspar Villiger, a former president of Switzerland and successful entrepreneur.
 
Villiger, 75, was actually president of Switzerland for two terms, namely from 1 January until 31 December 2002 and from 1 January until 31 December 1995 and a federal councillor from 1989 until 2003. He went on to become chairman of the board of the Union Bank of Switzerland from 2009 until 2012.
 
In addressing locals on Landsgemeindeplatz, Villiger (photograph) said Switzerland was facing one of its most difficult challenges in recent times in which he was referring primarily to the ongoing disputes between the country and the European Union. He said that, for him,  the celebration of autonomy here had been illusionary for some time. “The Swiss Confederation has always been small and vulnerable, buffeted as it has been by events which take place across the globe,” he said.
 
Moving on to the more recent and related issue of restricting immigration from the EU, Villiger said that the economy of Switzerland today had become so large that it was not possible to do without the talent foreigners brought with them. “This is why Switzerland is undertaking a great risk if the country becomes no longer attractive to highly qualified people from elsewhere. This is one of the big problems of the mass immigration initiative which was accepted by a very small majority earlier this year,” he said.
 
The former federal councillor, who actually comes from Lucerne but who now lives in Zug, acknowledged that heated political argument was not in itself a bad thing but over the centuries Switzerland had repeatedly managed to reach compromises. “I just hope this change in political style is not the result of a basic change in the ability of the country to find such compromises and liberal solutions,” he added.
 
The guest speaker in Cham on the occasion of the 724^th anniversary of the founding of the Swiss Confederation was Gerhard Pfister, a member of the Zug CVP party who sits in the National Council in Bern. He said that, in the course of the whole history of the world, no other country had enjoyed such a long period of peace and freedom as Switzerland had since 1848. “This is why Switzerland today is one of the most successful countries in the world and why we need to tender it to ensure this continues to be the case.”