Between Oligarchy Panic and Realpolitik: How Switzerland Navigates the Storm – and Who Screams the Loudest

Author: press@clarus.news

When the sirens wail in Bern – both politically and rhetorically – it usually has something to do with tariffs, the EU, or more recently, monster trucks. And indeed: the Federal Council's latest economic-diplomatic zigzag course provides plenty of material for drama. While Federal Councillor Parmelin speaks soberly of "turbulent times" in his speech and juggles numbers like a tennis pro with balls, the WOZ sees in the same process either an oligarchy invasion or genuflection before the imperial Orange God Trump.

Who is right? Both. And at the same time, neither.

Parmelin in the Engine Room: 39% Down to 15% – A Success That Can't Quite Celebrate

The Economics Minister brings back a tariff reduction from Washington – from 39% to 15%. That's not nothing, more like: "Better than a wet washcloth, but still a slap in the face." Switzerland remains disadvantaged, but full access to the US market would have been an illusion. And the 200 billion investments? An ambitious promise, but also one that still needs many asterisks (some of them probably red).

Add to that short-time work, regulatory relief, new free trade agreements. Solid realpolitik, presented factually, not without self-criticism. In short: Federal Councillor Parmelin strives for a solution package that is realistic under the conditions of a small state.

But realistic doesn't sound as sexy as "genuflection before the oligarchy."

The WOZ Sees Gold Bars, Trump's Minions and the Fall of the West

In the WOZ narrative, everything begins with "five super-rich" carrying a gold bar into the White House – an image that sounds like something from a Monty Python sketch. Then follows the accusation: the Federal Council has capitulated, sold off democracy, courted Big Tech and internalized an oligarchic worldview. The 200 billion direct investments are a gift to Trump, who in turn knows only one rule: "that none apply to him."

One can share this view – or one can ask oneself:

Why are left-wing analyses often only critical when reality doesn't match their theory?

The WOZ likes to act as if every Swiss compromise were a moral Waterloo moment. But let's be honest: small states make deals because they have to. And the USA is not a debating club. Anyone who believes one can talk about equal footing with Trump in economic policy has probably watched too much "House of Cards" on Arte.

"Team Oligarchy"? Rather Team Reality

The WOZ accusation that billionaires like Gantner and Trump would anyway play on the same "Team Oligarchy" is rhetorically pointed but misses the simple truth:

Economic interests are not moral categories.
They simply exist.

When Switzerland has companies that want to invest, then they do so. Not because Trump gives them a little kiss on the forehead or because the Federal Council is secretly abolishing democracy. But because globalized markets know no ideological filters.

The left-wing outrage over economic power is understandable – but it doesn't help when one has to negotiate concrete tariff rates. Only realpolitik helps there, and occasionally also swallowing ideological guardrails.

Switzerland Between the Blocs: More Chess Than Moral Theater

The follow-up article "Swiss Foreign Policy Between Trump and EU – the Erosion of the Rules-Based Order" shows it clearly:
https://clarus.news/de/Post/schweizer-aussenpolitik-zwischen-trump-und-eu-die-erosion-der-regelbasierten-ordnung-20251121

The rules of international politics are crumbling. And when the rules crumble, then states like Switzerland must improvise – sometimes elegantly, sometimes awkwardly, but always pragmatically.

Between Washington, Brussels and the World Economic Council, moral self-aggrandizement is of little use.
Capacity for action, however, is very useful.

My Conclusion: Less Hyperventilation, More Craftsmanship

Switzerland makes mistakes, certainly. But it doesn't kneel.
It acts.
And acting in a multipolar world rarely means keeping one's hands clean.

The Clarus article shows the government logic, pragmatic, unexcited.
The WOZ article shows the left-wing logic, moral, alarmist.

The truth lies, as so often, in between:
Switzerland is neither an oligarchy marionette nor a freedom-loving Alpine James Bond – it is a small state trying not to be crushed.

And that is hard enough – quite without gold bars.