By: Enver Robelli
A state visit is the highest honor Switzerland can extend to another state and its people. This year, that honor was reserved for Kosovo and its president. The Swiss invitation was also a gesture of recognition by the Swiss government to the large Albanian diaspora in Switzerland. Well over 200,000 people with roots in Kosovo live in Switzerland.
A state visit is a kind of public celebration during which the closeness or friendship between two states is honored. Politics is only superficially addressed. This is understandable since presidents generally do not govern directly. The visit is dominated by military honors, motorcades, red carpets on asphalt and sidewalks, helicopter and government plane flights, and in some cases even special trains, meetings, speeches (sometimes sentimental, sometimes impressive), and conversations.
The highlight is the state banquet, held on the evening of the first day of the visit at the Ministry of Finance premises in Bern, the capital of Switzerland. Until 100 years ago, this building was a hotel and is still called Bernerhof. At the invitation of the Swiss government, I had the great honor of participating in the state banquet in Bern last week. It was a great opportunity to meet many high-ranking Swiss political figures, including all 7 government ministers, state secretaries, ambassadors, officers, and some successful members of the Kosovar diaspora, whom I had not previously had the chance to meet personally.
Even during this evening, Switzerland presented itself with modesty, without pomp. Nothing was left to chance—even the flower bouquets and lit candles harmonized with the curtains and walls. Before the banquet, the brigade of waiters rehearses for the big performance. Simultaneously, as a seasoned Swiss colleague reporting from Bern told me, the cantonal police inspect the hall with dogs looking for any explosive devices. Nothing is left to chance.
A special charm to the evening was added by footballer Xherdan Shaqiri, currently the most famous Kosovar between Lake Constance and Lake Geneva. With his confidence, relaxed demeanor, and authenticity, Shaqiri has inspired many Kosovars to identify with their new homeland, Switzerland. Regarding integration: despite undeniable successes, the Kosovar diaspora still has a long way to go in finding its proper place in Swiss society. Perhaps this visit serves as a push in that direction.
Below, for detail enthusiasts, some data about the history of state visits in Switzerland.
1.
In his novel “The Great Tomcat”, Swiss writer Thomas Hürlimann writes about a state visit from Spain in 1979. The Great Tomcat, the main character in the novel, is reminiscent of the then Swiss president Hans Hürlimann—Thomas Hürlimann’s father. Here’s a detail from the novel:
“A traditional choir (Jodelchor) had sung too long, a heavy lament, eyes glaring sideways, while the mountains turned violet and the sky crimson, fleeing to the cars, escort sirens wailing, back to Bern, change of clothes and dinner, light conversations and smiles, for friendship, for Spain, for Switzerland, salud!
Early in the morning he had visited the troops with the king, at ten an hour factory, at eleven a chocolate factory, while Marie and the queen, cheered by Spanish foreign workers, had wandered for hours through middle-class enterprises, always waving and smiling, praising and greeting.”
2.
Swiss citizens follow state visits with interest. In 1929, King Fuad I of Egypt, who had Albanian origins, was invited for a state visit to Bern. Before the monarch from the Nile arrived in Switzerland, the Swiss president received a letter from a woman introducing herself as “Miss Sattler from Baar,” a town in central Switzerland. She wrote:
“Dear President of the Confederation (Robert) Haab,
From a newspaper, I learned that His Majesty Fuad I, King of Egypt, will soon arrive in Bern. Should an official lunch be organized in His Majesty’s honor, please be aware that, following his doctor’s advice, he only drinks Evian water. Bottles must be sealed with a cap, never with a cork. He enjoys smoking light-colored Havana cigars. I worked for several years as a housekeeper in an aristocratic household in Cairo, during the time when His Majesty was still a prince and was often a guest at dinners. His Majesty has great sympathy for the Swiss.
With high respect,
Miss Carolina Sattler, Baar, Zug.”
3.
According to Switzerland’s official list of state visits, Kosovo is the first country from the Balkans to receive such an invitation. Not even Josip Broz Tito—perhaps the most traveled autocrat of the 20th century—made a state visit to Switzerland. According to historian Thomas Bürgisser, who wrote an informative dissertation on Swiss-Yugoslav relations during the Cold War, there’s no record in the Swiss archives of any attempt by the Swiss government to invite Tito.
The first diplomat from Kosovo sent to Switzerland by the Yugoslav Foreign Ministry was likely Rexhep Xhiha. The Swiss government accredited him as Yugoslavia’s Consul General in Zürich in early November 1967.
In 1982, the ambassador of Yugoslavia in Bern was former journalist and communist politician Sulejman Rexhepagiq, born in Plav, Montenegro. Based on his name and birthplace, Rexhepagiq was likely of Albanian origin, though this would require further research.
A Yugoslav politician of Swiss origin also rose through the communist hierarchy: Ales Bebler. His grandfather came from the canton of Glarus in Switzerland. Ales Bebler, who earned a doctorate in law in Paris, served as deputy foreign minister of Yugoslavia and ambassador to Paris. His son, Anton Bebler, is a political science professor at the University of Ljubljana and one of the region’s most respected academics. A long-time critic of Serbian repression in Kosovo and a supporter of Kosovo’s independence, Bebler is now 88. From 1992 to 1997, he served as Slovenia’s ambassador to the UN office in Geneva—thus returning to the land from which his ancestors had emigrated.
4.
In modern Swiss history, one state visit was accompanied by scandal. On March 25, 1999—one day after NATO began bombing Yugoslavia—Chinese President Jiang Zemin arrived in Switzerland. He was expected on the Federal Square in Bern by all cabinet ministers, the army’s honor guard, photographers, journalists, and citizens. Zemin, however, did not appear—activists from Tibet had climbed a bank building and were holding balloons with the messages “Dialogue” and “Tibet.” The Chinese leader bypassed the ministers without greeting them and went directly into the Swiss parliament.
When Swiss President Ruth Dreifuss mentioned the situation of the Tibetan people during her speech, Zemin responded angrily: “You have lost a good friend.” The situation was saved by a Swiss minister who pulled a crystal from his pocket and gifted it to the Chinese leader.
5.
A part of the tradition is that after a state visit, the visiting president sends a thank-you letter to the Swiss government. Emperor Haile Selassie of Ethiopia sent his letter three months after his visit. The Swiss protocol interpreted this as revenge, as Switzerland had recognized Italy’s rule over Ethiopia in 1935. At the same time, Selassie had applied for asylum in Switzerland, but was refused.