VZCZCXYZ0000
RR RUEHWEB

DE RUEHSW #0896/01 2560553
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 130553Z SEP 07
FM AMEMBASSY BERN
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 4475
INFO RUCNMEU/EU INTEREST COLLECTIVE

UNCLAS BERN 000896 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPT FOR EUR/AGS AND INR/EU 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV SNAR SZ
SUBJECT:  BLOCHER-ROSCHACHER ROILS SWISS CONSENSUS POLITICS 
 
 
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Summary 
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¶1. (SBU) The Blocher-Roschacher affair is for the most part about 
Federal Councilor (and Justice Minister) Blocher's role in the July 
2006 resignation of Federal Prosecutor Valentin Roschacher.  The key 
question hanging in the air is whether Blocher abused his office as 
Justice Minister to exert undue pressure on Roschacher to resign, or 
worse, was involved in a secret plot trying to oust Roschacher. 
Though this complex saga appears far from over, it thus far has 
generated one of the worst bouts of bickering and public accusations 
in modern Swiss politics.  However, barring some further sensational 
development, we should not expect Blocher to resign or be removed 
from office.  The most likely effect of the affair will be to 
galvanize already committed supporters in the Swiss political camps, 
rather than increase the support for one party or another.  End 
summary. 
 
------------------------------- 
Background:  The "Ramos Affair" 
------------------------------- 
 
¶2. (U) In July 2006, former Federal Prosecutor Valentin Roschacher 
announced his resignation.  He previously had weathered some 
domestic criticism in 2004 for alleged mismanagement and for a 
terrorism cooperation agreement he concluded with the USG.  However, 
his 2006 resignation was made amidst mounting public pressure 
following a Swiss newspaper article alleging that Roschacher had 
played an instrumental role in engaging a convicted Columbian drug 
trafficker, Jose Manuel Ramos, for an undercover operation in 
Switzerland.  Ramos reportedly had spent 12 years in a U.S. prison 
on drug charges. 
 
¶3. (U) Information provided by Ramos purportedly prompted an 
investigation against a Swiss private banker, Oskar Holenweger, on 
suspicion of money-laundering.  The investigation ultimately led to 
Holenweger's personal ruin, but to no formal indictment.  Swiss 
press reports claimed that the Federal Prosecutor had placed too 
much stock in information provided by an ex-con.  Only days after 
the press reports, Justice Minister Blocher and the Swiss Federal 
Criminal Court in Bellinzona, which hold joint oversight over the 
Federal Prosecutor's office, announced a special investigation of 
Roschacher's office.  Roschacher announced his resignation before 
the end of this special investigation, though he ultimately was 
cleared of the allegations of mismanagement and legal wrongdoing. 
 
------------------------------- 
The "Blocher-Roschacher Affair" 
------------------------------- 
 
¶4. (U) The Oversight Committee of Parliament's lower house (GPK-N), 
which monitors the Swiss government administration on behalf of the 
Parliament, has had an ongoing investigation of the circumstances 
leading to Roschacher's resignation.  The issue had remained largely 
out of the public discussion until September 3, when left-leaning 
newspapers began reporting information apparently leaked from a 
GPK-N report on Roschacher's resignation.  According to those press 
reports, Blocher allegedly plotted to oust Roschacher, overstepping 
his mandate by pressuring Roschacher to resign and by arranging a 
severance package for Roschacher to help convince him to quit absent 
any legal or administrative basis. 
 
¶5. (U) The storm broke on September 5 when the Federal Council 
announced it planned to engage an independent legal expert in order 
to help it assess the findings of the (yet-to-be published) GPK-N 
report on Roschacher's resignation.  Under mounting pressure of the 
media reports, Blocher the same day held a press conference 
denouncing the GPK-N report as "tendentious" and the allegation of a 
plot as "nonsense." 
 
¶6. (U) Later on September 5, the GPK-N held a hastily arranged press 
conference to publish the findings of its report, which alleges 
serious misconduct of Blocher, including bypassing the Federal 
Council and disregarding the separation of powers in the 
"non-voluntary resignation" of Roschacher.  More ominously, the 
GPK-N also announced that it was going to examine documents that 
might reveal a plot to oust Roschacher, cooked up by Holenweger and 
supposedly involving Blocher.  The documents reportedly had been 
obtained by the German police and provided by the government of 
Germany to Swiss legal officials.  By September 6, the media from 
left to right was pitching the imbroglio as an affair of state 
focusing almost exclusively on putative evidence of a plot.  The 
actual GPK-N report got almost overlooked by the media. 
 
-------------------------- 
The SVP Comes Out Swinging 
-------------------------- 
 
¶7. (U) On September 6, Blocher's SVP fought back.  SVP strategist 
Christoph Moergeli presented the press with what he said were the 
original documents that the GPK-N wanted to evaluate for indications 
of the alleged plot.  Thus far, the GPK-N has only viewed copies 
held by a Swiss Examining Magistrate, who did not permit the GPK-N 
to make copies of the documents.  Moergeli said he had obtained the 
documents directly from his "friend" Holenweger.  The documents are 
a series of military-style flipcharts with names of two dozen Swiss 
politicians, journalists, and private persons, annotated with 
comments, abbreviations, and markings.  Moergeli vehemently 
dismissed allegations that the documents in question represented 
plans of a secret plot against Roschacher, calling the conspiracy 
theory "politically instrumentalized bull----." He argued that the 
cryptic notes of Holenweger, a former Swiss army general staff 
officer, were simply Holenweger's effort to record the crisis 
unfolding over Roschacher following the publication of the press 
reports regarding the "Ramos Affair." 
 
¶8. (U) In a September 11 statement released via his lawyer, 
Holenweger himself reinforced Moergli's claims, arguing that the 
documents were simply notes he wrote for his own "personal 
orientation," and that none of the persons listed were aware of the 
documents or involved in any kind of plot.  He further stated that 
he had not met with Blocher since 1988, and apologized for the 
trouble the documents had caused. 
 
------------------- 
"UnSwiss" Bickering 
------------------- 
 
¶9. (SBU) Though this complex saga appears far from over, it thus far 
has generated one of the worst bouts of bickering and public 
accusations in modern Swiss politics.  The SVP has presented recent 
events as proof of its claims that the left was conspiring to oust 
Blocher from the Federal Council which comes up for election in 
December.  Lucrezia Meier-Schatz, the member of the GPK-N who 
insinuated a possible plot to oust Roschacher, reportedly has 
received anonymous threats and has been put under police protection. 
 Some members of the (center-)left have decried Blocher's position 
on the Federal Council as untenable, though generally denying any 
plot to remove him.  Federal Councilor and Interior Minister 
Couchepin (FDP) said on Swiss radio that recent events reminded him 
of fascism in Italy and, referring to his arch-enemy Blocher, that 
Switzerland had no need for a "Duce." 
 
¶10. (SBU) On September 10, Swiss President Micheline Calmy-Rey, who 
thus far had refrained from comment, urged restraint on everybody. 
In an interview with Switzerland's largest circulation tabloid, 
Calmy-Rey 
called the current bickering among the political parties "unSwiss" 
and admonished that nobody should be blamed before all the facts are 
known and carefully evaluated. 
 
----------------------- 
A Complicated Storyline 
----------------------- 
 
¶11. (SBU) The circumstances leading to Roschacher's resignation 
remain murky and facts are scant.  However, it is an open secret 
that there was no love lost between Blocher and Roschacher, who 
repeatedly had clashed publicly prior to Roschacher's July 2006 
resignation.  It also is a fact that Blocher had warned Roschacher 
in writing of his possible dismissal.  Nevertheless, Blocher would 
have had no authority to single-handedly sack Roschacher.  That is 
where the conspiracy theories start, allegedly "corroborated" by the 
Holenweger charts, claiming that the press report that prompted 
Roschacher's resignation was part of a bigger plot (Comment:  The 
newspaper in question -- "Weltwoche" -- firmly toes the SVP line. 
End comment) 
 
¶12. (SBU) Those who claim that the affair stems from a personal 
vendetta against Blocher note that Roschacher had been nominated as 
Federal Prosecutor by Blocher's predecessor as Justice Minister, 
Ruth Metzler (CVP), whom Blocher bumped from the Federal Council 
following the elections in 2003, ending 44-years of stable party 
composition of the Swiss government when the SVP demanded a second 
seat in the Cabinet.  Roschacher had a long-standing personal 
relationship dating back to student days with Metzler and her 
husband, so his relations with Blocher likely were strained from the 
very beginning.  Meier-Schatz, who led the investigation of 
Blocher's actions and stirred rumors of a plot, is a member of the 
Christian-Democratic party, as is Metzler, and represents a Canton 
in eastern Switzerland from which both Roschacher and Metzler hail. 
 
-------------------------------- 
Comment:  Pre-Election Politics? 
-------------------------------- 
 
¶13. (SBU) The Blocher-Roschacher affair has roiled the Swiss 
political scene whose normal hallmarks are consensus and compromise. 
 And it comes at a particularly sensitive time, as the Swiss prepare 
for their October 21 parliamentary elections.  General Swiss 
prosperity and challenges related to globalization appear to be 
reinforcing the normal pre-election tendency toward "niche" politics 
and polarization (more on that will be reported septel). 
 
¶14. (SBU) Against this backdrop, the vehemence with which the 
various parties have asserted wrong-doing by others and/or claimed 
for themselves the status of "victim" surely is driven by a desire 
to score political points.  However, barring some further 
sensational development, we should not expect Blocher to resign or 
be removed from office.  Give the complexity of the storyline and 
limited public appetite for political news, the most likely effect 
of the affair will be to galvanize already committed supporters in 
the Swiss political camps, rather than increase the support for one 
party or another. 
 
CARTER