The Swiss National Day, also known as the Bundesfeier or la Fête nationale suisse, has been celebrated annually on August 1 since 1891. The young Confederation, established in 1848 after a process spanning centuries, commemorated the (mythical) alliance of the first Eidgenossen of Uri, Schwyz and Unterwalden in 1291.
The Bundesbriefmuseum and the Forum Schweizer Geschichte in Schwyz, as well as the Landesmuseum in Zurich, provide insight into this realisation through words, images, and documentation.
Basel, celebration of the Swiss National Day, 1 August 2025
Looking back is important, necessary and meaningful. However, we live in the present, looking to the future. What today unites the 26 cantons and their diverse languages, cultures, religions, and economic systems? Despite these differences and sometimes conflicts, there is a unifying factor: the Swiss way of life, or Swissness.
Swiss life is a way of life, shaped over centuries. The Constitution of 1848, as amended and supplemented over time, is the legal and political representation of Swiss life at national, cantonal, and municipal levels.
Bern, Bundeshaus,/Palais fédéral, the 26 cantons
The Constitution
Direct democracy, subsidiarity and the federal organisation of the country are expressions of Swiss life, i.e. the way the inhabitants organise and want to live their daily lives. The citizens and the cantons are thus the key figures. This is also reflected in the preamble and Articles I and II of the Constitution:
The Swiss People and the Cantons,
mindful of their responsibility towards creation,
resolved to renew their alliance to strengthen liberty, democracy, independence and peace in a spirit of solidarity and openness towards the world,
determined to live together with mutual consideration and respect for their diversity,
conscious of their common achievements and their responsibility towards future generations,
and in the knowledge that only those who use their freedom remain free, and that the strength of a people is measured by the well-being of its weakest members,
adopt the following Constitution:
Art 1: The People and the Cantons of Zurich, Bern, Lucerne, Uri, Schwyz, Obwalden and Nidwalden, Glarus, Zug, Fribourg, Solothurn, Basel Stadt and Basel Landschaft, Schaffhausen, Appenzell Ausserrhoden and Appenzell Innerrhoden, St. Gallen, Graubünden, Aargau, Thurgau, Ticino, Vaud, Valais, Neuchâtel, Geneva, and Jura form the Swiss Confederation.
Art 2 (1): The Swiss Confederation shall protect the liberty and rights of the people and safeguard the independence and security of the country.
2) It shall promote the common welfare, sustainable development, internal cohesion and cultural diversity of the country.
3) It shall ensure the greatest possible equality of opportunity among its citizens.
4) It is committed to the long-term preservation of natural resources and a just and peaceful international order.
Landesmuseum, Affiche of the Constitution of 1848
Following the introduction of the mandatory referendum in 1848, the optional referendum and the People’s Initiative were introduced in 1874 and 1891, respectively, and citizens and cantons have the final say. These far-reaching powers did not emerge overnight, but had a centuries-long history in several cantons.
Even the oligarchically governed cantons of the ancien régime changed their minds after many (internal) discussions and partly because of the experiences in the French era (1798-1813). This development was not self-evident, but was the result of a political movement partly inspired by the “Landsgemeinde” and the French era.
Geneva, 25 September 2022, an optional referendum
Conflicts between and within the cantons were high after 1815. Still, in the end, as the preamble and Articles 1 and 2 also guarantee, the citizens and cantons ultimately have the final say on federal powers, freedom, democracy, independence, and peace.
1848-2025
The Constitution of 1848 and its amendments also form the basis for the “Swiss Wirtschaftswunder”, the rock-hard Swiss franc, quality education (both university and vocational), a militia system, solidarity, and a system of social security.
Fasnacht 2023, Laterne. The 26 cantons and the commitment of their citizens.
This system, with 26 different cantons (the EU has 27 nations), can only work if the citizens also experience, support, and shape it. And they do. It, in turn, has to do with the country’s mentality in economy, education, culture and society: hard-working, innovative, creative, with an open eye to foreign countries in terms of exports, studying, emigrants, travelling and working and, at the political level, focused on consultation, compromise, respect and tolerance.
Nimwegen, Bastion Museum, model of a wooden raft. Swiss merchants, emigrants, mercenaries and globetrotters used this transport from Basel to Amsterdam for centuries. A witness from 1611: “Als ich 1611 im Früling mit Gottes hilff auff meinem Handwerck zu wandern auf den Rhenistrom hinabgezogen und zu Amsterdam angelangt, allda auch einen Meister gefunden“, a text from the Reiseberichte (1624) by Samuel Braun from Bazel, used in the roman from Helen Liebendörfer, Die Abenteuer des Samuel Braun. Als Schiffarzt nach Afrika (Basel 2023)
Currant picker or European and world citizen
Many times, the country is labelled “Currant Picker”, especially by the EU and its supporters in Switzerland. However, who is picking the “currants”? Some 400,000 French, Italians and Germans work as border crossers (frontaliers) in this small country!
Additionally, hundreds of thousands of EU citizens work and reside in Switzerland. By comparison, far fewer Swiss work in the Netherlands, France, Italy or Germany. The country has the world’s best vocational education (Berufsbildung), universities, research programs, and institutes. On five continents, many Swiss are active in NGOs, businesses, education, research, or as globetrotters.
Andeer, Hinterrhein
Citizens live literally and figuratively close to nature. In all cantons and municipalities, “Bio” and respect for nature have been at the forefront for generations. Clean “white energy” accounts for about 50 per cent of energy needs.
However, the Court of Human Rights is making a fuss by issuing a factually and legally absurd judgment on an issue orchestrated by Greenpeace (apart from other activist rulings).
Zinal, Alpage de Cottier
The country has built costly relevant European transport links at its own expense, on time and without too much corruption. However, the EU and its member states have ignored agreements on this transport system, as well as the binding results of a referendum (1994).
The European Union
What binds citizens of countries within the European Union together? What do Finns have in common with Greeks, Irish with Bulgarians and, who knows, in a few years, Turks with Swedes? Only the top-down concept and centralism, with its bureaucracy and “one size fits all” approach, keep this Union going.
But the democratic, cultural, social and societal basis for the ever-expanding EU is lacking. Moreover, this Union is unable to reform itself, and its immigration, euro, or foreign policies (if any) degenerate into a morass of discord, failure, and rhetoric.
That works as long as interests and concerns are shared, but ambitions, rhetoric and words cannot eliminate fundamental differences. No sensible person is opposed to the European Union, with its necessary, well-functioning, and relevant cooperation.
Scaremongering and fear (Internal Market, Trump, Russia, China, and so on) are not a solid basis for presenting unrealistic European federal ambitions as “necessary,” when intergovernmental cooperation is often more effective, transparent, and, above all, democratic.
Laterne Fasnacht 2025, America today
Parallel Societies, Human Rights and Opt-Out
EU countries Denmark and Poland openly oppose Europe’s failing (if any) immigration policy. However, Switzerland does adopt it in the proposed treaty without an opt-out.
This ignores that obtaining German, Dutch, Portuguese or Spanish citizenship is relatively easy for (too) many immigrants, who, however, also have access to Switzerland because of this (EU) pass.
Many times, getting an employment contract with (obscure) companies of widely spread family or friend relations in Switzerland is not a problem. It is also somewhat naive to assume that an employment contract in itself is a serious condition for obtaining a residence permit in this context.
Family reunification is also open-ended and will create surprises. And why should there be an automatic right to a permanent status after only five years? Ten years is the minimum to get an (minimum) understanding of the complex Swiss society, cantons, languages and cultures. And even then.
Treaty of the Union monétaire latine, 23 December 1865. Source: Wikipedia
Conclusion
In the relationship with the EU, the focus should not be on the text of a treaty, but on Swiss life, as expressed in the preamble and Articles 1 and 2 of the Constitution.
Moreover, a sui generis organisation like the EU did not exist at all in 1848. Due to the limitations of direct democracy, subsidiarity, and federal design in the envisaged new treaty with the EU, the legislator also had in mind the 1957 “sui generis” EU, and thus the double majority of cantons and citizens (as stated in the preamble and articles 1 and 2).
The Euro-CHF exchange rate 2002-2025. source: www.schweizer-franken.eu
Words are patient and all too often the EU has shown itself not to be a trustworthy partner (e.g. Horizon exclusion, NEAT, Stock Exchange listings and other threats) or the Court of Justice of the European Union ignores violations of European law due to political motives (“Dublin”, euro or state aid and monopolies (EDF) of France) or is downright activist and politically minded.
In contrast, the European Commission has sued the publicly owned Dutch National Railway Company, Nederlandse Spoorwegen (NS), due to its monopoly position. A bad omen for Europe’s best public transport (the SBB, Postauto and the Schweizer Salines).
It is somewhat naive to assume that practice will be different with a new treaty. On the contrary, despite sweet-talking texts, reality will ultimately prevail over the text.
Moreover, Switzerland’s involvement in legislation discussions at the EU-level is somewhat different from decision-making, and the Dutch experience has shown that even codecision at the EU-level is very relative (3% influence) and “debtors” have created, for example, a French-Italian currency and a French-Italian European Central Bank in violation of the EU treaty.
The treaty with the EU should therefore not be about immigration as such (fortunately, Switzerland has been an immigration country for many generations), but rather about preventing the emergence of parallel societies, as seen in other EU countries. This is a constitutional and human right for the country’s inhabitants (citizens and non-citizens).
The Mont Terri Rock Laboratory, St. Ursanne
Switzerland is a cosmopolitan society in terms of mentality, economy, immigration, education, culture, research and population composition. The country was at the centre of Europe long before the creation of the EU and has been and remains a loyal European player in many areas. While maintaining its traditions, including direct democracy, subsidiarity, and a federal organisation, these principles form the foundation of its existence and functioning.
Own initiative and accountability, combined with the militia system, solidarity, and consideration for the minority and weaker, form essential pillars in this. Even monasteries flourish in this system!
Switzerland should not “Europeanise” further, but the EU would do well to acknowledge and accept, in several respects, that the country is what it is: not an island, not a paradise, but (for now) an economically, democratically, and socially stable oasis in the heart of Europe. Perhaps the EU should become more ‘Swiss’ in some aspects.
And besides, this EU, due to its flawed democracy, innovative capacities, absence of the World’s top universities, high debts, centralism, lack of subsidiarity, and weak currency, would never be admitted to the Swiss Confederation as the 27th canton. Not Switzerland is the problem, but in (too) many aspects, this EU is!
However, Switzerland would do well to open up to European and international cooperation on defence. Unlike Swiss life, which is characterised by direct democracy, subsidiarity, and federalism, neutrality can be put into perspective in the current context. This is especially true since Switzerland was not entirely neutral from 1940 to 1945, nor during the Cold War.
The Rhine near Eglisau, frontier with Germany 1939-1945
