Walter Thurnherr is Federal Chancellor of Switzerland and will be stepping down from office in December. This creates freedom – also with regard to one’s own country, for example in the debate about neutrality in the Ukraine war.
You only hear Walter Thurnherr from the qualified physicist for a short time, but from the experienced diplomat you hear him talk more. “Democracy is not the normal state,” warns the Federal Chancellor of Switzerland. You have to “carry them, support them, defend them, and sometimes even fight for them,” he said at the opening of the SZ economic summit in Berlin on Monday. “And that takes courage.” Also the courage to take the time to make decisions. Democracy is just a learning process, says Thurnherr. And yes, sometimes it is also cumbersome – he knows what he is talking about. “In Switzerland no one actually decides, everyone slows down a bit.” Thurnherr says his country is a huge “consultation washing machine,” only half-jokingly. “Everyone is constantly asked about everything.”