Tribute: Pierre Veya, clairvoyance in the service of journalism

It was a morning in January 2022. Pierre Veya told us in an editorial session that the giant Alpiq, owner of, among other things, the Grande-Dixence dam, came close to disaster at Christmas. At issue: a guarantee mechanism required by stock market and electricity trading regulations. Its management had no other choice, Pierre explains to us, to approach the highest levels of the Confederation. The company could urgently need several hundred million francs. Otherwise it risks defaulting on payment.

Shock around the table: no one among us has heard of such a scenario. But Pierre is sure of his fact. He investigates, checks, writes. L’article is published on the “24 Heures” and “La Tribune de Genève” sites on January 18, 2022, then the next day in our paper editions. Switzerland’s vulnerability in terms of electricity supply is coming to light. Three months later, when Russia has just invaded Ukraine, the Federal Council closes an emergency plan which would make it possible to release up to 10 billion francs in the event of an explosion in energy prices.

This episode alone sums up what Pierre Veya brought us: expertise, clairvoyance, determination. He knew how to anticipate the major issues of our time. He identified and analyzed complex issues, then deciphered their practical consequences in our lives. Journalism, for him, was not frivolous. It was to be a landmark, a revealer, an anchor point for society.

Researchers, entrepreneurs, decision-makers: its network in the energy field was unparalleled in French-speaking Switzerland. But Pierre Veya also excelled in monitoring banking affairs. If we were able to precisely dissect the origins and developments of the Credit Suisse debacle, until its extremis takeover by UBS in 2023, it is thanks to him. Every year, we could also count on this great connoisseur of world geopolitics to go au WEF de Davos in order to detect the latest trends in the markets.

It is an understatement to say that the Swiss press lost a great servant last weekend. Pierre Veya, born in Saint-Brais (JU), cut his teeth in the Jura (“Le Démocrate”, “L’Impartial”), then worked at “L’Hebdo” and “L’Agefi” , before joining “Time”of which he was editor-in-chief from 2010 to 2015. Subsequently, he moved to “Matin Dimanche”, which joined forces with “24 Heures” and “La Tribune de Genève” in 2018. This outstanding columnist will have been the highly respected head of our economics section until his early retirement in April 2024.

Proud of his roots

Pierre succumbed to an illness as devastating as it was merciless. While he was carrying out an ambitious project, Swisspowershift.chan information platform in the field of energies launched with his friend Olivier Wurlod, whom he had known within our editorial staff. Even in retirement, Pierre Veya remained on the lookout for ongoing developments in the sectors that fascinated him. An influential member of the Climate Council established in Geneva, he still regularly wrote columns in our columns. The last one, published just a month ago, concerned the artificial and massive removal of CO₂ from the atmosphere. He saw there “the very last chance solution” to try to solve the climate crisis.

So was our dear colleague and friend Pierre Veya: a lucid, pugnacious and brilliant journalist. But he was also an endearing man, who remained close to the land, proud of his peasant roots in the Jura. When he cycled along the country roads, he always observed the crops and fields, he admired the forests. He loved taking care of his home and his beautiful garden. He loved his family more than anything, his wife Donatienne, their three daughters and their grandchildren.

Pierre was taken from them far too early, at the age of 63. We modestly share their pain and offer them our heartfelt condolences.

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