The guest: no future without industrial policy

The last two Swiss steelworks are in serious difficulty. In Solothurn, Stahl Gerlafingen will close one of its two production lines. Around a hundred jobs are threatened. In Lucerne, Swiss Steel must increase its capital by 300 million to get by.

Already in December 2022, two German-speaking parliamentarians, a socialist state advisor and a UDC national advisor, intervened to avoid this crisis. They tabled the same motion asking the Federal Council to take measures to support companies that produce and recycle metal in Switzerland. I supported this motion, accepted in 2023 by a majority of the Council of States and then the National Council.

The Federal Council is therefore required to implement it. But the State Secretariat for the Economy continues to act as if it were the popular will. “7:30 p.m.” on French-speaking TV relayed its position in these terms on April 3: “Switzerland renounces such measures because they are costly and do not guarantee long-term competitiveness.” In other words, we are right against the whole world, including parliament!

Every country that matters has an industrial policy, from encroaching China to the United States fighting to maintain its leadership. On the Washington side, market liberalism is advocated in speeches for the naive, but largely contradicted by the avalanche of subsidies and investments from which its industries benefit. Even Europe, which has long believed in the virtues of letting go in relation to relocations and the mirage of Asian markets, has woken up. It now protects its remains from foreign competition, of which our country is unfortunately part.

Switzerland, for its part, remains wait-and-see, as if the Covid-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine had not shown our fragility of supply in several sectors.

Who will pay?

Foreign countries massively supported their steel mills following the explosion in energy prices. Not Switzerland. In the final analysis, who will pay the costs of federal passivity? The social costs linked to job loss. The economic costs linked to the loss of know-how and our domestic supply. Our steelworks indeed supply many companies which will have to look much further afield, and at what price, for substitute products.

Finally, the ecological costs, since the Solothurn steelworks, for example, produces steel from metal waste. How many trucks will it take to evacuate this unused waste to who knows what landfill or incineration plant? Who is going to pay all these bills? Person?

The market economy, yes. But the market that kills the economy, no.

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