Journalicious Dots from Switzerland

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DEPT FOR EUR/AGS AND INR/EU

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PGOV SNAR SZ
SUBJECT: BLOCHER-ROSCHACHER ROILS SWISS CONSENSUS POLITICS

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Summary
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¶1. (SBU) The Blocher-Roschacher affair is for the most part about  Federal Councilor (and Justice Minister) Blocher’s role in the July  2006 resignation of Federal Prosecutor Valentin Roschacher. The key  question hanging in the air is whether Blocher abused his office as  Justice Minister to exert undue pressure on Roschacher to resign, or  worse, was involved in a secret plot trying to oust Roschacher.  Though this complex saga appears far from over, it thus far has  generated one of the worst bouts of bickering and public accusations  in modern Swiss politics. However, barring some further sensational  development, we should not expect Blocher to resign or be removed  from office. The most likely effect of the affair will be to  galvanize already committed supporters in the Swiss political camps,  rather than increase the support for one party or another. End  summary.

——————————-  Background: The “Ramos Affair”  ——————————-

¶2. (U) In July 2006, former Federal Prosecutor Valentin Roschacher  announced his resignation. He previously had weathered some  domestic criticism in 2004 for alleged mismanagement and for a  terrorism cooperation agreement he concluded with the USG. However,  his 2006 resignation was made amidst mounting public pressure  following a Swiss newspaper article alleging that Roschacher had  played an instrumental role in engaging a convicted Columbian drug  trafficker, Jose Manuel Ramos, for an undercover operation in  Switzerland. Ramos reportedly had spent 12 years in a U.S. prison  on drug charges.

¶3. (U) Information provided by Ramos purportedly prompted an  investigation against a Swiss private banker, Oskar Holenweger, on  suspicion of money-laundering. The investigation ultimately led to  Holenweger’s personal ruin, but to no formal indictment. Swiss  press reports claimed that the Federal Prosecutor had placed too  much stock in information provided by an ex-con. Only days after  the press reports, Justice Minister Blocher and the Swiss Federal  Criminal Court in BELLINZONA, which hold joint oversight over the  Federal Prosecutor’s office, announced a special investigation of  Roschacher’s office. Roschacher announced his resignation before  the end of this special investigation, though he ultimately was  cleared of the allegations of mismanagement and legal wrongdoing.

——————————-  The “Blocher-Roschacher Affair”  ——————————-

¶4. (U) The Oversight Committee of Parliament’s lower house (GPK-N),  which monitors the Swiss government administration on behalf of the  Parliament, has had an ongoing investigation of the circumstances  leading to Roschacher’s resignation. The issue had remained largely  out of the public discussion until September 3, when left-leaning  newspapers began reporting information apparently leaked from a  GPK-N report on Roschacher’s resignation. According to those press  reports, Blocher allegedly plotted to oust Roschacher, overstepping  his mandate by pressuring Roschacher to resign and by arranging a  severance package for Roschacher to help convince him to quit absent  any legal or administrative basis.

¶5. (U) The storm broke on September 5 when the Federal Council  announced it planned to engage an independent legal expert in order  to help it assess the findings of the (yet-to-be published) GPK-N  report on Roschacher’s resignation. Under mounting pressure of the  media reports, Blocher the same day held a press conference  denouncing the GPK-N report as “tendentious” and the allegation of a  plot as “nonsense.”

¶6. (U) Later on September 5, the GPK-N held a hastily arranged press  conference to publish the findings of its report, which alleges  serious misconduct of Blocher, including bypassing the Federal  Council and disregarding the separation of powers in the  “non-voluntary resignation” of Roschacher. More ominously, the  GPK-N also announced that it was going to examine documents that  might reveal a plot to oust Roschacher, cooked up by Holenweger and  supposedly involving Blocher. The documents reportedly had been  obtained by the German police and provided by the government of  Germany to Swiss legal officials. By September 6, the media from  left to right was pitching the imbroglio as an affair of state  focusing almost exclusively on putative evidence of a plot. The  actual GPK-N report got almost overlooked by the media.

————————–  The SVP Comes Out Swinging  ————————–

¶7. (U) On September 6, Blocher’s SVP fought back. SVP strategist  Christoph Moergeli presented the press with what he said were the  original documents that the GPK-N wanted to evaluate for indications  of the alleged plot. Thus far, the GPK-N has only viewed copies  held by a Swiss Examining Magistrate, who did not permit the GPK-N  to make copies of the documents. Moergeli said he had obtained the  documents directly from his “friend” Holenweger. The documents are  a series of military-style flipcharts with names of two dozen Swiss  politicians, journalists, and private persons, annotated with  comments, abbreviations, and markings. Moergeli vehemently  dismissed allegations that the documents in question represented  plans of a secret plot against Roschacher, calling the conspiracy  theory “politically instrumentalized bull—-.” He argued that the  cryptic notes of Holenweger, a former Swiss army general staff  officer, were simply Holenweger’s effort to record the crisis  unfolding over Roschacher following the publication of the press  reports regarding the “Ramos Affair.”

¶8. (U) In a September 11 statement released via his lawyer,  Holenweger himself reinforced Moergli’s claims, arguing that the  documents were simply notes he wrote for his own “personal  orientation,” and that none of the persons listed were aware of the  documents or involved in any kind of plot. He further stated that  he had not met with Blocher since 1988, and apologized for the  trouble the documents had caused.

——————-  “UnSwiss” Bickering  ——————-

¶9. (SBU) Though this complex saga appears far from over, it thus far  has generated one of the worst bouts of bickering and public  accusations in modern Swiss politics. The SVP has presented recent  events as proof of its claims that the left was conspiring to oust  Blocher from the Federal Council which comes up for election in  December. Lucrezia Meier-Schatz, the member of the GPK-N who  insinuated a possible plot to oust Roschacher, reportedly has  received anonymous threats and has been put under police protection.  Some members of the (center-)left have decried Blocher’s position  on the Federal Council as untenable, though generally denying any  plot to remove him. Federal Councilor and Interior Minister  Couchepin (FDP) said on Swiss radio that recent events reminded him  of fascism in Italy and, referring to his arch-enemy Blocher, that  Switzerland had no need for a “Duce.”

¶10. (SBU) On September 10, Swiss President Micheline Calmy-Rey, who  thus far had refrained from comment, urged restraint on everybody.  In an interview with Switzerland’s largest circulation tabloid,  Calmy-Rey  called the current bickering among the political parties “unSwiss”  and admonished that nobody should be blamed before all the facts are  known and carefully evaluated.

———————–  A Complicated Storyline  ———————–

¶11. (SBU) The circumstances leading to Roschacher’s resignation  remain murky and facts are scant. However, it is an open secret  that there was no love lost between Blocher and Roschacher, who  repeatedly had clashed publicly prior to Roschacher’s July 2006  resignation. It also is a fact that Blocher had warned Roschacher  in writing of his possible dismissal. Nevertheless, Blocher would  have had no authority to single-handedly sack Roschacher. That is  where the conspiracy theories start, allegedly “corroborated” by the  Holenweger charts, claiming that the press report that prompted  Roschacher’s resignation was part of a bigger plot (Comment: The  newspaper in question — “Weltwoche” — firmly toes the SVP line.  End comment)

¶12. (SBU) Those who claim that the affair stems from a personal  vendetta against Blocher note that Roschacher had been nominated as  Federal Prosecutor by Blocher’s predecessor as Justice Minister,  Ruth Metzler (CVP), whom Blocher bumped from the Federal Council  following the elections in 2003, ending 44-years of stable party  composition of the Swiss government when the SVP demanded a second  seat in the Cabinet. Roschacher had a long-standing personal  relationship dating back to student days with Metzler and her  husband, so his relations with Blocher likely were strained from the  very beginning. Meier-Schatz, who led the investigation of  Blocher’s actions and stirred rumors of a plot, is a member of the  Christian-Democratic party, as is Metzler, and represents a Canton  in eastern Switzerland from which both Roschacher and Metzler hail.

——————————–  Comment: Pre-Election Politics?  ——————————–

¶13. (SBU) The Blocher-Roschacher affair has roiled the Swiss  political scene whose normal hallmarks are consensus and compromise.  And it comes at a particularly sensitive time, as the Swiss prepare  for their October 21 parliamentary elections. General Swiss  prosperity and challenges related to globalization appear to be  reinforcing the normal pre-election tendency toward “niche” politics  and polarization (more on that will be reported septel).

¶14. (SBU) Against this backdrop, the vehemence with which the  various parties have asserted wrong-doing by others and/or claimed  for themselves the status of “victim” surely is driven by a desire  to score political points. However, barring some further  sensational development, we should not expect Blocher to resign or  be removed from office. Give the complexity of the storyline and  limited public appetite for political news, the most likely effect  of the affair will be to galvanize already committed supporters in  the Swiss political camps, rather than increase the support for one  party or another.

CARTER

DE RUEHSW #0896/01 2560553
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 130553Z SEP 07
FM AMEMBASSY BERN
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 4475
INFO RUCNMEU/EU INTEREST COLLECTIVE

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