Opening of the 51st Solothurn Film Festival

Alain Berset opens the 51st Solothurn Film Festival. For Swiss cinema, 2015 was the year of “Heidi”, the biggest Swiss box-office success of all time, and of “Schellen-Ursli”. He draws a conclusion from it: “Die Alpen sind offenbar unwiderstehlich.”

He contrasts the two poles of Swiss identity: the Alps, unchanging, and direct democracy, “etwas nervöser, aber auch etwas lebendiger”, where almost everything is negotiated. A month before the vote, the speech takes aim at the enforcement initiative on the deportation of foreign criminals.

Speeches on this site

• Der Geist von Solothurn erobert die Alpen (in German, French-language page)

Sources

• Speech published by the Federal Council, reproduced on alainberset.ch