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by René Zeyer*
(5 November 2021) Fundamental rights are the foundation of a free civilisation. A pandemic endangers health. Curtailment of fundamental rights endangers society.
Freedoms are used without thinking about what a privilege they are. And how quickly they can be endangered.
by Andreas Kley*
(5 November 2021) The subject of the referendum vote [of 28 November 2021] is the “Federal Act on the Statutory Principles for Federal Council Ordinances on Combating the COVID-19 Epidemic”. The title of the law, which lacks content, is striking. The title is pleonastic, because what should a federal law do other than create legal foundations? Moreover, a law must do more than just support ordinances.
by M. K. Bhadrakumar*
The Moscow meeting of ten regional states and the Taliban officials on 22 October has produced an outcome that by far exceeds expectations. The salience of the consensus opinion is four-fold, as reflected in the joint statement issued after the event:
Elisabeth Paul1*, Garrett W. Brown2, Mélanie Dechamps3, Andreas Kalk4,
Pierre-François Laterre5, Bernard Rentier6, Valéry Ridde7, Martin Zizi8
(3 November 2021) Although the threat of a pandemic had been present for many years, COVID-19 triggered frantic and uncoordinated reactions worldwide (Independent Panel for Pandemic Preparedness and Response, 2021; Paul et al., 2020b). Since being declared a public health emergency in January 2020, COVID-19 has been regarded as an exceptional disease, almost as if it came from outer space.
(27 October 2021) Edit. What has been learned about Federal Councillor Ueli Maurer lately? His wearing a white T-shirt with a “Freiheitstrychler” imprint1 caused a lot of fuss in the Swiss media. However, his speech at a citizens’ meeting in the Zurich Oberland2 found little echo in the media. For this reason, “Swiss Standpoint” presents some of the central statements of his speech, which was delivered in Swiss German.
by Willy Wimmer,* Germany
(27 October 2021) If the CDU/CSU wants to make itself politically capable of acting once again in the future, all the leaders who made the path to Ms. Dr Merkel’s doom possible in the first place through cowardice, irresponsibility and cowarding should be put on the political siding.