Alain Berset opens COP24 with some 45 heads of state or government. At stake at the conference: the implementation rules of the Paris Agreement. The summit presents the Silesia Declaration on a just transition. In his national statement, he recalls that the average temperature in Switzerland has risen by two degrees since 1864 and that […]
Alain Berset leads the Swiss delegation that receives Michelle Bachelet, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights since September. Ignazio Cassis and members of the foreign affairs committees of both chambers attend. He stresses the political and financial means that the Office of the High Commissioner and the Human Rights Council need. The talks also […]
The Federal Assembly elects Ueli Maurer President of the Swiss Confederation for 2019, with 201 votes, the best result since 1989. Alain Berset, the outgoing President, speaks at the celebration held in Berne in honour of his successor. Sources swissinfo.ch, 05.12.2018
Alain Berset receives the credentials of the ambassadors of Sierra Leone, Lansana Gberie, Chad, Makaila Ahmad, Honduras, Giampaolo Rizzo Alvarado, Mozambique, Amadeu Paulo Samuel da Conceição, and Myanmar, Kyaw Moe Tun. All are resident in Geneva. Sources Federal Council, press release of 11.12.2018
Alain Berset is the guest of the traditional Epiphany evening of the Landwehr, the official band of the State and City of Fribourg. In the hall: the President of the Council of State, federal parliamentarians, members of the cantonal government and of the consular corps. The speech is a piece of humour built on the […]
Four members of the Federal Council attend the WEF annual meeting. Alain Berset puts health policy at the centre: drug prices, digitalisation, patient safety. He meets several health ministers, including Jens Spahn (Germany), Bruno Bruins (Netherlands) and Matt Hancock (United Kingdom), and takes part in a forum session on cooperation in health. He also sees […]
Alain Berset opens the Solothurn Film Festival at the Reithalle, arriving straight from Davos. He starts from good news from America to speak about the place of cinema: film remains, “ob gestreamt oder im Kino”, the main medium through which a society understands itself. He sees in recent Swiss cinema a return to political seriousness. […]
On the day of Vogel Gryff, the great festival of Kleinbasel, Alain Berset is the guest of honour at the Gryffe-Mähli, the banquet of the three honorary societies (Drei Ehrengesellschaften Kleinbasels). He gives the guest’s speech, on the theme of misunderstandings. After the formal greetings, he thanks his hosts in Basel dialect. Sources Blick, 26.01.2019
In Berne, Alain Berset brings together some 300 health policy stakeholders for the sixth Health2020 national conference, devoted to the digitalisation of the health system. He opens with a figure: about 350,000 health apps for smartphones, and 200 new ones every day. The problem, he says, is the gap between what technology allows and how […]
Alain Berset presents the Swiss Literature Awards 2019. The Grand Award goes to Zsuzsanna Gahse; the Special Award for Mediation to the Centre de traduction littéraire de Lausanne and the Looren Translation House. His speech has a title: “Literatur – die Feindin der Rechthaberei”. He quotes Susan Sontag and defends empathy as literature’s most topical […]
Alain Berset speaks at the Rencontres du 7e Art in Lausanne, a festival founded by Vincent Perez. He opens with a mock settling of scores with “Monsieur Couchepin”: not his predecessor at the FDHA, but Aloïs Couchepin, the character played by Vincent Perez in the comedy “Bienvenue en Suisse” (2004). Speeches on this site Rencontres […]
Alain Berset leads the Swiss delegation to the 63rd session of the Commission on the Status of Women. The theme: social protection for women and girls, and their access to public services and infrastructure. Switzerland puts forward two priorities: equal pay and recognition of unpaid domestic and care work. Before the plenary, he quotes Simone […]
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