Head of Swiss business federation criticises government

After six years, Christoph Mäder will soon step down as chair of economiesuisse, the Swiss Business Federation. He does so with a warning about Switzerland's ability to meet future challenges. +Get the most important news from Switzerland in your inbox In his farewell review, he paints a picture of blocked reforms and a political class that he says prefers to postpone difficult decisions rather than take responsibility for making choices. 'If we are no longer able to find compromises, we will soon have a systemic problem,' says the 66-year-old in an interview published on Friday in the Neue Zürcher Zeitung (NZZ), summarising his fears that the inability to engage in dialogue is undermining the foundations of the Swiss political model. A model that, according to him, now suffers from a "crisis of intermediaries" – parties, media and associations – increasingly replaced in public discussion by the voices of polarising extremism. At the heart of his analysis is an attack on the ...