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Just over half a month ago, the Swiss government held a special referendum in its country. In this event, the Swiss people who participated in the referendum will decide whether Switzerland will remain neutral in international conflicts in the future.
This kind of referendum to determine national policy sounds a little too incredible. But in reality, this is a tentative move by the Swiss government right under the nose of the international community.
This is because for the past few hundred years, Switzerland has maintained a neutral attitude. As a result, Switzerland has also been labelled a "permanently neutral country" and many international organizations have offices in Switzerland.
In recent international conflicts, however, Switzerland has been far from being neutral.
So, what will happen to Switzerland once it loses its title of "neutral country"?
A country that survives in the cracks
To some extent, the Swiss title of "neutral" was not the result of their own active choice. At the end of the day, it's all because they're in a really special location.
Switzerland is located between Germany, Austria, France and Italy. You know, these countries have historically been strong European powers, and they have often broken out into fierce conflicts and even wars with the outside world.
As long as Switzerland shows a tendency to favor either side after the start of the war, it is very likely that Switzerland will be quickly destroyed.
Therefore, in order to survive, Switzerland must remain politically and militarily neutral. But rhetorical neutrality is not indicative of Switzerland's tendency to act.
During the Second World War, the German army mobilized more than 300,000 troops in an attempt to launch a war of aggression against Switzerland. The German military top brass even gave the operation a very romantic code name - Project Christmas Tree.
But there was no impermeable wall, and the news that the Germans were training their troops and preparing to invade Switzerland immediately reached the ears of Swiss officials.
The Swiss government immediately expressed its support for Germany and the Nazi Party. Not only did they hunt down and drive out Jews from their territory, but they even began to use their country's military factories to manufacture weapons and equipment for the German war.
Throughout the Second World War, 40% of the German army's anti-aircraft guns and anti-aircraft weapons were manufactured by Swiss military factories.
Moreover, Switzerland almost never asks for honorariums from the Germans, and Germany has been given a large factory that can supply itself with weapons for free.
In addition to this, Switzerland also sent large sums of money and bribes to many high-ranking Nazi officials. Immediately after the Nazi dignitaries were bribed with money, they began to blow the wind in Hitler's ears in the hope that Germany would abandon its military plan to attack Switzerland.
After weighing the pros and cons, Nazi Germany abandoned its plan to attack Switzerland and expressed its willingness to recognize Switzerland as a "neutral country". Switzerland finally found space to survive in the flames of the Second World War.
However, I am afraid that even the Swiss themselves did not expect that the title of "neutral country" would bring them a lot of wealth and wealth. Since then, Switzerland has successfully entered the ranks of developed countries by means of neutrality.
The "Prosperity Story" of Small, Poor Countries
Before the outbreak of the Second World War, Switzerland was actually a small and impoverished European country. At the time when Nazi Germany was attempting to launch an aggressive plan against Switzerland, there were even high-ranking German generals who thought that Switzerland was too poor to deserve German occupation.
But after Switzerland declared itself neutral, it became a platform for Nazi Germany to maintain trade with the outside world. A large amount of money was remitted to the accounts of Swiss banks, and Swiss officials were able to collect a large amount of commissions from them.
More importantly, some high-ranking Nazi officials seemed to have foreseen the doom of Germany. Once the war began, they deposited all the money they had embezzled or plundered into Swiss banks.
Moreover, the refusal of Swiss banks to disclose information about their customers to all unrelated parties also made Swiss banks safes for many high-ranking Nazi officials to store their funds and valuables.
Many Jews, fearful of being plundered by the Germans, also chose to deposit all the money they could not transfer into Swiss banks. Thus, after the Second World War, Switzerland amassed a jaw-dropping wealth in its hands.
Most of the owners of this wealth were killed or killed during the Second World War, so it was only natural that the money became Switzerland's development money after the war.
While other European countries were still surviving on the Marshall Plan of the United States, Switzerland had already achieved leapfrog development with the vast wealth accumulated during World War II.
And politically, Switzerland's choice is also quite "smart".
In 1944, when Germany, which had been rampant, saw that it was coming to an end, Switzerland immediately sent officials to meet privately with the Allies and expressed its willingness to provide the necessary military and economic support to the Allies.
In this way, Switzerland succeeded in attracting the attention of the Allied bloc. Therefore, even if Switzerland helped the Nazis produce weapons and equipment during the war, the country was not included in the liquidation list of the Allies after the war.
Around the time of the Second World War, various international organizations emerged. In view of Switzerland's title as a "neutral country", many international organizations have offices in Switzerland.
This has undoubtedly enhanced Switzerland's international visibility and influence.
In fact, the Swiss are well aware that the countless halos they have now received are actually due to the title of neutral country. As a result, the Swiss people have always maintained a state of incommunicado and are welcoming to visitors from all over the world.
However, in international politics, there has never been complete "neutrality". After the outbreak of the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, Switzerland naturally chose to stand in the camp of Western countries.
This move not only broke Switzerland's century-old political tradition of "neutrality", but also completely shook the very foundation of Switzerland.
Extremely embarrassing Switzerland
In February 2022, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced the launch of a special military operation against Ukraine. Russia's move immediately drew economic sanctions from the United States and many European countries, but no one expected that Switzerland would join the sanctions.
Immediately after the United States and some European countries announced sanctions against Russia, Swiss banks also froze the funds deposited within the bank by a large number of Russian individuals and organizations, a move that surprised many.
You know, even during the Second World War, Swiss banks maintained frequent business dealings with high-ranking officials in Nazi Germany. Why did Swiss banks make such a devastating move against Russia when the Russian-Ukrainian conflict broke out?
Actually, the reason why Switzerland is doing this is very simple. In the past, Swiss banks did not dare to openly freeze the assets of the Germans because Germany had the military capability to destroy Switzerland at any time.
After the outbreak of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, the reason why Switzerland dared to freeze the deposits of Russian individuals and organizations in Swiss banks was because they expected that no matter how powerful the Russian army was, it would not be possible to invade Swiss territory in an instant.
But as soon as Switzerland abandoned the title of "neutral country", the negative effects appeared. Many countries have moved their assets for fear of being sanctioned by Swiss banks in the future, as Russia has done.
All of a sudden, Swiss banks, which had become incredibly wealthy, were greatly affected.
So, just a few days after officially announcing sanctions against Russia, Switzerland changed course and announced that it would remain "permanently neutral".
However, because of the stupid actions of the Swiss government in the past, it is obviously difficult to win the trust of people to declare "neutrality" again.
In desperation, the Swiss government had to give everyone another so-called neutrality referendum performance. According to German media reports, the Swiss government held a referendum on March 20, 2024 local time.
Swiss citizens participating in the referendum will vote on whether Switzerland will remain neutral. However, anyone with a discerning eye can see that all this is nothing more than a trick by the Swiss government to cover it up.
Before, they wanted to reap more benefits by breaking neutrality, but they didn't expect to lose their wife and soldiers. Now that they have lost the international credibility they have accumulated over the past few hundred years and are in a hurry to put on the brakes, it has to be said that Swiss politicians have really played the trick of political speculation.
In addition, many people familiar with the matter broke the news that during the Cold War, Swiss banks had long provided the CIA and the KGB of the Soviet Union with a list of depositors and detailed deposit data in their institutions.
In other words, in the face of absolute authority and power, the so-called absolute "secrecy clause" of Swiss banks is also not very applicable.
Switzerland is quite awkward right now. On the one hand, they do not have the courage to go directly to the camp of the West, because it is likely that this will continue to cause immeasurable losses to Switzerland.
On the other hand, it is unlikely that Switzerland will maintain its decent image as a neutral country, because the actions of the Swiss government have already undone all their past political efforts.
Perhaps the situation in Switzerland today is a reminder to all of us: there is never such a thing as permanent neutrality or permanent confrontation in the face of absolute national interests. Behind those high-sounding slogans, there are often just some habitual calculations of interests.
Bibliography:
Swiss political parties push for a referendum on "maintaining neutrality" reference news
Why can Switzerland become a neutral country?