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Stadler Rail boss and former SVP national councilor Peter Spuhler is fighting alongside FDP federal councilor Karin Keller-Sutter against SVP’s initiative. This compromise does not sit well with the party itself.
It is the European political vote of the decade: the SVP’s limitation initiative, the initiative against the free movement of people, will be at the polls in a good three weeks. The fronts are really clear: all against the SVP, the SVP against all. So: after all, all SVP members don’t support the initiative. One particularly prominent member is leaving.
It would be gross negligence to abandon the bilateral path and break the treaties.
He has always been in favor of the bilateral route, explains Peter Spuhler: “It would be grossly negligent to leave the bilateral route and push contracts against the wall.”
Responsible Federal Councilor Karin Keller-Sutter is delighted with Spuhler’s commitment. “In general, it is important that entrepreneurs come out clearly and say that this initiative is a threat to Switzerland as a business location.”
Entrepreneur SVP Grüter criticized
Another SVP model entrepreneur is Franz Grüter, chairman of the board of the Internet company Green.ch. As one of the SVP vice presidents, Grüter is fighting for the limitation initiative. The fact that his party partner, of whom he is also a good friend, is fighting the initiative does not sit well with him.
Peter Spuhler’s clients are the governments of Switzerland and throughout Europe.
He suspects another reason for Spuhler: “Peter Spuhler’s clients are the governments of Switzerland and all of Europe.” Spuhler simply wants to get along with these governments.
A serious accusation. Spuhler just smiles and says that he would offer his trains in public tenders. “Posing well is not possible at all, everything goes exactly according to the legal requirements and processes.”
Spuhler fears the “planned economy”
Almost half of Peter Spuhler’s 4,500 employees in Switzerland are EU specialists. If free movement of people ceases to exist, hiring new skilled workers would be tricky, Spuhler fears. “We would use the old quota model,” which is a bureaucratic model, actually a “planned economy.”
CEO Peter Spuhler poses after Stadler Rail’s annual press conference on June 7, 2017 in Bussnang.
Keystone
Internet entrepreneur Franz Grüter says Peter Spuhler could hire his specialists in the EU even if he said yes to the initiative. “You may have to fill out a form.” But that is normal in many parts of the world. Even after the end of the free movement of people, the goal is to allow skilled workers to move to Switzerland in the most unbureaucratic way possible, says Grüter. But only those who really need it.
The end of bilaterals?
But opponents fear that due to the so-called guillotine clause, all bilateral agreements could be canceled. For example the agreements on air and land transport. “Now you can see from the example of Great Britain how difficult it will be to negotiate a new contract later,” Spuhler warns. He does not believe that the bilaterals can “save themselves” after saying yes to the SVP initiative.
Franz Grüter, Executive Vice President of Business, sees it very differently. The EU sells significantly more goods in Switzerland than the other way around. “The EU has a huge interest in preserving the bilateral treaties.”
For entrepreneur SVP Spuhler, the limitation initiative is too dangerous an experiment. With the crisis in the crown, the situation on the economic front is already uncertain enough. But this opinion is quite offensive to his own party.
