‘Visibility’ or ‘poisoned chalice’? Swiss papers react to Berset appointment

Swiss politician Alain Berset will be the next head of the Council of Europe – a win not only for Berset himself and the Strasbourg-based organisation but also for Switzerland, say the Swiss media. However, they reckon the appointment could force the country to do some soul-searching. “The tension was high to the very end,” wrote the Neue Zürcher Zeitung on Tuesday evening, just after Berset had become the first Swiss in the Council of Europe’s 75-year history to be chosen as Secretary General. “Who dares wins” was the headline of the editorial of the Aargauer Zeitung on Wednesday. “The risk has paid off for Alain Berset. After an exhausting election campaign, he made it to the top of the Council of Europe. This wasn’t a given. His candidature didn’t arrive in Strasbourg until the last minute, when a Social Democrat rival was already waiting in the wings. And his fiercest rival, EU functionary Didier Reynders, was better connected.” But the 52-year-old former Swiss interior ...