The guest
August 1, 2025: Fires of war with the fires of hope
Claude Bonard, former secretary general of the State Chancellery, vows for our country on this evening of national holidays.
This summer, the fires burn around us everywhere. Forest fires in Canada, Greece and France due to drought due to global warming and human imprudence. Warfares in the Middle East and Ukraine. Fires of civil wars or hybrid conflicts in cashmere, Sudan or even in Africa to name only these examples.
A party dating from 1891
In Switzerland, we are preparing to light other fires which have their origin in those that our ancestors lit in order to communicate between neighboring regions or to report the dangers.
Our national holiday of August 1 is a creation that dates from 1891, six hundred years after the perpetual alliance of the countries of Uri, Schwytz and Unterwald. In 1847, Switzerland undermined by political and confessional disagreements had not escaped the flames of the civil war.
In the years that followed, it was a question of healing the wounds, and of recreating the unity of the country. The Federal Pact of 1291 concluded between the three forest cantons renewed previous alliances Promising mutual aid and assistance towards anyone who would like to damage the rights of the contractors.
Emperor’s support
It is good to recall, with regard to the countries of Uri, Schwytz and Unterwald, that the first freedoms they acquired were based on the Holy Roman Empire. Henri de Souabe, on behalf of his father Frédéric II of Hohenstaufen who left for a crusade, then in Italy, granted for example on May 26, 1231 a charter in the Uranais, subtracting them to the authority of the Habsburg.
Our ancestors then maneumed with a sharp political meaning, always looking for the direct support of the emperor. Their franchises were thus confirmed by the emperor Henri VII of Luxembourg in 1309. In Geneva, the bishop fighting against the Counts of Geneva did the same! Emperor Frédéric Barberousse granted imperial immediacy to the city in 1162.
Refusal of isolation
On this August 1, 2025, can light lights In Switzerland symbolize confidence and solidarity between us. Our world has a pain in peace. Switzerland must affirm its vocation as a place of reception allowing all the actors of a conflict to negotiate and get out of the throes of the war.
And that the fires of hope are soaring!
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