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New Year reception for the diplomatic corps
At the Parliament Building, Alain Berset receives the heads of mission accredited to Switzerland. The Apostolic Nuncio, Dean of the Diplomatic Corps, presents the New Year greetings; the presidents of both chambers attend.
He starts from a paradox: “Our time is a time of contradictions.” Life expectancy, health and education are improving; growth is returning to Europe. But the sense of insecurity is growing, fed by inequality, which even the International Monetary Fund calls for fighting. Two tasks, in his view: share the fruits of the recovery fairly, and prevent digital technology from deepening divides. One sentence from this speech, “We seem well prepared to meet the challenges of the 21st century”, will serve him five years later, in the same place, to measure what has changed.
Speeches on this site
- Neujahrsempfang für das diplomatische Corps (in German, French-language page)
Sources