24 hours: letters to readers of June 17, 2024

Dissolution in France

Here comes the end of the first half of a high-voltage match. The European elections showed, for our French cousins, that the proposals of the National Rally (RN) for Europe and France surpassed those of the other parties in France. The second half is coming. It looks exciting.

With the dissolution of the French National Assembly desired by President Macron, a fierce electoral campaign began. She will be harsh, uncompromising. A second half without stoppages in play. President Macron’s trick is perhaps to discredit the RN by leaving Matignon to him, in order to give him a hard time and thus prevent him from winning the 2027 presidential election.

Unfortunately, imagining the third half at this level is nonsense. In the event of a victory for the RN next July, this phase of the match will take place in the street. Led not by “idlers”, but by the left, Insoumis in the lead, with all the excesses that will be attached to it, at the very moment of the Olympic Games. This is Macron’s great fault.

The poker move of dissolution is perhaps intended to be Gaullian; it is not so. For him it’s just a desperate attempt to keep control, while he’s closer to the kid playing with matches while sitting on a powder keg. Let’s hope that Geneva will escape this kind of predictable chaos in the future…

Roland-Daniel Schneebeli, Hermance

Public service

How long gone are the days when a little hello to the postman was part of this brief, pleasant moment of the day.

I agree, exchanges by emails and all other current means of communication (internet, etc.) mean that La Poste services are used much less now. However, they remain essential for a whole category of people, those who are not “connected”, for example, or those whose mobility is reduced and/or are not motorized.

I am thinking in particular of registered letters (the content of which is obviously particularly important and often urgent) which are distributed personally only when the recipient, living in a rental property, can be reached by intercom. Otherwise, as is my case, I simply find a notice in my mailbox, and I have to go get this envelope… the next day, more than a kilometer from my home, in a pharmacy that provides postal services , after the Neighborhood Post Office was abolished.

Postal rates are increasing, services are no longer what they used to be. And what’s more, I learn from a article published in “24 Heures” on June 14 that mail A is in trouble! I’m taken aback.

Gisèle Bottarelli, Morges

The post office

It is essentially the socialists who have been criticized for being ideologues instead of being pragmatists. However, the Swiss right has clung like a sinking raft to “less government and the privatization of all or almost all public services”. Isn’t that what it means to be ideologues? The fact that the Confederation could employ 40,000 employees to deliver letters, parcels and payments without wealthy friends being able to take a few percentages of all these salaries could not last.

So we made La Poste a limited company and opened these services to competition. I saw three parcel postmen passing by instead of one: DPD, DHL and my postman. There are at least four other competitors. And we are surprised at the drop in postal traffic even though we have pushed customers into the arms of several other companies. Added to this is digitalization. We hardly go to the counter anymore. Most of our messages go through the computer.

That no one remembers this great commotion and that everyone is lining up to blame our former management for the reduction in offices and the deterioration of service without remembering why such a “catastrophe” leaves me speechless.

It is true that the socialists had little opposition to these transformations. Privatizations were all the rage. When the general director Rey fought for this SA to modernize but keep its soul and remain attached to a quality public service, we invented, by anonymous letter, a bogus accusation to push him out. Accusations which were all dismissed as unfounded. Are these dirty tricks over?

Pierre Aguet, Vevey

Consumption

The Migros/Coop duopoly, which holds 80% of the Swiss food market, has the highest gross margins in Europe (40% and 30%)!

Not content with the strong pressure already exerted on our local food producers, Migros, which came close to 32 billion in revenue in 2023, joined Epic Partners, a giant alliance bringing together other European supermarkets (German, Dutch, Norwegian, Polish)!

Recently put on the grill by journalists from the written and oral press, the spokesperson for Migros dared to declare (see “24 hours” of May 23, 2024): “As for the margins applied, Migros affirms that it does not consult… with Coop and that “its own are “extremely low”, 1.5%! On 100 francs of turnover, Migros only makes a profit margin of 1 to 2 francs!

Our food producers who are fighting for their survival and us, consumers facing a reduction in our purchasing power, will appreciate…

So there are two things, one: either it would be an admission of disastrous management – ​​or it is a version closer to “credibility” than credible… It’s up to you to judge…

Frank Paillard, Les Charbonnières

Policy

So, Florence Gross, PLR deputy at the Grand Council, tabled a resolution to ban the word “free” in the vocabulary of the Council of State and the official correspondence of the canton (or the Canton?)… And she wants to replace it with “funded by taxpayers”…Why? So as not to continue to mislead voters! No, we’re walking on our heads there! Aren’t there more important and more urgent subjects than quibbling over words or subjects of no general interest, a “sport” that has become almost common for right-wing parties. By her request, this MP will force the Council of State to appoint a commission, which will have to rule numerous times before finding (or not…) a compromise that satisfies Ms. Gross and her party colleagues. And will that be free for taxpayers? I doubt…

René Paschoud, Prilly

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