What’s old is new again in Switzer­land. Maybe. It depends on how the Swiss decide to vote in a few weeks. So what’s old may or may not be new again. But it’s def­i­nite­ly still ill-advised:

Quartz
It seems nuts, but the Swiss may go back to a gold stan­dard

Writ­ten by
Matt Phillips Novem­ber 6, 2014

The British pound hasn’t been linked to gold since 1931. The US US snipped the cord in 1971. But the Swiss only ful­ly sev­ered ties to gold in 1999, when vot­ers approved a revamped con­sti­tu­tion.

Now, a good chunk of them seems to want to go back.

.On Nov. 30, Swiss vot­ers will cast bal­lots on a num­ber of issues includ­ing the “Save our Swiss Gold” ini­tia­tive launched by the right-lean­ing Swiss People’s Par­ty. The bal­lot mea­sure would instant­ly ban the Swiss Nation­al Bank from sell­ing gold. It also would require that the nation­al bank keep 20% of its assets in gold with­in five years. (It cur­rent­ly has about 8% in gold.) Oh, and it would demand that all the gold be stored in Switzer­land itself. (About 30% is parked abroad right now.)

“It’s real­ly an attempt to return to some kind of gold stan­dard, for those who don’t trust paper mon­ey and who want gold back­ing it up,” UBS strate­gist Beat Siegen­thaler told Reuters.

While it’s not strict­ly the same thing as a gold standard—for instance a clas­si­cal gold stan­dard stip­u­lat­ed that nation­al ban­knotes be freely con­vert­ed to gold at a fixed price—the Swiss gold ini­tia­tive is a step in that direc­tion.

What’s the moti­va­tion, exact­ly?

It would be one thing if we were deal­ing with a bas­ket-case cur­ren­cy and ram­pant Swiss infla­tion. But Switzerland’s cur­ren­cy prob­lem, ever since it cut ties with gold, is that the franc has been far too strong, not too weak. That’s act­ed as a drag on the Swiss economy’s high-val­ue export sec­tor. In fact, it’s been such a prob­lem that the Swiss Nation­al Bank has tak­en big—some might say risky—steps to smack down the cur­ren­cy, the effects of which would like­ly be reversed if the bank were forced to buy more gold.

...

And the worst part of the pro­posed law, accord­ing to a Swiss Nation­al Bank offi­cial by the name of Jean-Pierre Dan­thine, is the pro­vi­sion that Switzer­land must nev­er, ever sell gold again. He explained in a recent speech:

In com­bi­na­tion with the oblig­a­tion to hold at least 20% of total assets in gold, this could grad­u­al­ly lead the SNB into a sit­u­a­tion where its assets would main­ly con­sist of gold: each exten­sion of the bal­ance sheet for mon­e­tary pol­i­cy rea­sons would neces­si­tate gold pur­chas­es, but when­ev­er the bal­ance sheet need­ed to be reduced again for the same rea­sons, we would not be able to resell our gold hold­ings. This would severe­ly restrict our room for manoeu­vre.

From a pure­ly tac­ti­cal point of view, it would be deeply sil­ly to dou­ble down right now on gold, which gained in val­ue dur­ing the finan­cial cri­sis but has since slid from its peak in 2011 at near­ly $1,900 an ounce. Com­mit­ting to buy now would essen­tial­ly be a giant bailout for spec­u­la­tors in the gold mar­kets. Bloomberg reports that, giv­en the Swiss Nation­al Bank has some $544 bil­lion in assets on its bal­ance sheet, the gold ini­tia­tive would force it to buy more than $56 bil­lion worth of phys­i­cal gold over the next five years. And if cur­rent price trends con­tin­ue, the val­ue of that gold would be falling.

In short, the Save Our Swiss Gold ini­tia­tive doesn’t make sense eco­nom­i­cal­ly. (Luck­i­ly its chances of becom­ing law are slim—it would need to win out­right in a pop­u­lar vote, and also in the major­i­ty of can­tons that make up the Swiss Fed­er­a­tion.) But ref­er­en­da like this and the one Swiss vot­ers recent­ly passed to clamp down on immi­gra­tion real­ly aren’t about eco­nom­ics. They’re about the increas­ing­ly influ­en­tial right­ward drift of Euro­pean pol­i­tics, which threat­ens to result—especially in the case of the Save our Swiss Gold initiative—in some real­ly ter­ri­ble poli­cies.

“In short, the Save Our Swiss Gold ini­tia­tive doesn’t make sense eco­nom­i­cal­ly. (Luck­i­ly its chances of becom­ing law are slim—it would need to win out­right in a pop­u­lar vote, and also in the major­i­ty of can­tons that make up the Swiss Fed­er­a­tion.) But ref­er­en­da like this and the one Swiss vot­ers recent­ly passed to clamp down on immi­gra­tion real­ly aren’t about eco­nom­ics. They’re about the increas­ing­ly influ­en­tial right­ward drift of Euro­pean pol­i­tics, which threat­ens to result—especially in the case of the Save our Swiss Gold initiative—in some real­ly ter­ri­ble poli­cies.”

Yes, iden­ti­ty pol­i­tics and a gener­ic right­ward drift appear to have once again put the Euro­pean lizard brain in the dri­ver’s seat so who knows if it will pass at this point. And while the chances of this law pass­ing are still seen as rel­a­tive­ly small since it lacks major­i­ty back­ing, keep in mind that it’s get­ting pret­ty close to hav­ing that major­i­ty:

The Wall Street Jour­nal
Swiss Bank Speaks Out Against Gold Ini­tia­tive
Polls Show Vote on Gold Bul­lion Pro­pos­al Too Close to Call

By John Revill
Nov. 12, 2014 5:55 a.m. ET

ZURICH—The head of Switzerland’s cen­tral bank has warned that main­tain­ing sta­ble prices would be hard­er to achieve if the Alpine coun­try votes to require the bank to keep a min­i­mum amount of gold in its vaults.

The adop­tion of the so-called “Save Our Swiss Gold” ini­tia­tive would be a “fatal error of judg­ment,” Thomas Jor­dan, pres­i­dent of the Swiss Nation­al Bank, told Swiss news­pa­per 20 Minuten in an inter­view pub­lished Wednes­day.

On Nov. 30, the Swiss are sched­uled to vote in a ref­er­en­dum on the ini­tia­tive to make the Swiss Nation­al Bank to hold a fifth of its assets in gold, a lev­el it would need to meet with­in five years. The SNB cur­rent­ly has assets of around $550 bil­lion.

The require­ment, the cam­paign for which is led by mem­bers of the right-wing Swiss People’s Par­ty, would also pro­hib­it the bank from sell­ing any of its gold in the future and repa­tri­ate gold held over­seas.

A recent poll showed the vote was too close to call with 44% of respon­dents in favor of the ini­tia­tive, 39% against and 17% unde­cid­ed. A major­i­ty of vot­ers and a major­i­ty of Switzerland’s 26 can­tons, akin to U.S. states, need to approve the ini­tia­tive for it to pass.

Mr. Jor­dan said the pro­pos­als would dam­age the SNB’s abil­i­ty to deal with infla­tion, while jobs could be endan­gered.

“Too lit­tle gold in the eco­nom­ic cri­sis was nev­er the prob­lem, the strong franc was the prob­lem,” Mr. Jor­dan said in the inter­view. “We had a mas­sive over­val­u­a­tion which has led to major prob­lems.

“We must be able to damp­en this prob­lem, but our abil­i­ty to do this would be severe­ly restrict­ed,” he said. The ini­tia­tive would force the SNB to buy gold every time it buys euros, which it has done to curb the rise of the Swiss franc.

...

Vic­to­ry for Aus­tri­a’s new anti-EU leader and surge in sup­port for anti-immi­grant par­ty sends shock­waves through Europe as Merkel warns of ‘big chal­lenge’ ahead

By Joe Shep­pard and Gareth Davies and Scott Camp­bell For Mailon­line Octo­ber 16, 2017

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4984980/Sebastian-Kurz-victory-sends-shockwaves-Europe.html#ixzz4vm4fcU6r 
Fol­low us: @MailOnline on Twit­ter | Dai­ly­Mail on Face­book

The arti­cle states:
Sebas­t­ian Kurz’s elec­tion vic­to­ry last night has sent shock­waves through Europe as it appears he may seek a coali­tion with the coun­try’s anti-immi­gra­tion Free­dom Par­ty.

The Euroscep­tic leader of Aus­tri­a’s right-lean­ing Peo­ple’s Par­ty has declared vic­to­ry in a nation­al elec­tion that puts him on track to become the world’s youngest leader.

Kurz, 31, fell well short of a major­i­ty and may be look­ing to strike a deal with anoth­er par­ty. 

The Free­dom Par­ty (FPO) got around 26 per­cent of votes in Sun­day’s par­lia­men­tary vote, boost­ed by a Euro­pean migra­tion cri­sis in 2015 that affect­ed Aus­tria and also led Kurz to cam­paign on an anti-migra­tion plat­form. 

Today Euro­pean Union min­is­ters con­grat­u­lat­ed Aus­tri­a’s Sebas­t­ian Kurz on his elec­tion vic­to­ry but some were uneasy about the far-right, euroscep­tic par­ty that may enter the new gov­ern­ment.

And Ger­man chan­cel­lor Angela Merkel warned that the surge in sup­port for the FPO posed a ‘big chal­lenge’ for oth­er par­ties.
Before arriv­ing to talks with his EU peers Lux­em­bourg For­eign Min­is­ter Jean Assel­born said: ‘I don’t have a prob­lem with Sebas­t­ian Kurz as a per­son. We’re not fol­low­ing the same line polit­i­cal­ly, that has nev­er been the case and it nev­er will be.’

He list­ed pro-Euro­pean Aus­tri­an politi­cians as role mod­els for Kurz and warned Vien­na not to side with migra­tion hard­lin­ers, includ­ing Hun­gary, whose gov­ern­ment is also euroscep­tic.

Skip­ping down in the arti­cle…
Here’s what the two par­ties stand for: 

Peo­ple’s Par­ty 
• Cap basic wel­fare pay­ments for refugees at 540 euros a month
• No inher­i­tance tax and intro­duce 1,500 euros-a-month min­i­mum wage
• Cut­ting income tax on annu­al earn­ings up to 60,000 euros

Free­dom Par­ty
• Push for Brus­sels to hand more pow­ers back to mem­ber states
• Shut sec­tors of econ­o­my to non-EU work­ers
• Cut pro­por­tion of for­eign pupils in schools
• Deport for­eign con­victs

Where they agree... 
• Stop res­cue mis­sions of refugees in the Mediter­ranean
• Cut EU influ­ence on the day to day gov­ern­ing of Aus­tria
• High­er stan­dards of inte­gra­tion before grant­i­ng cit­i­zen­ship
• For­eign­er ben­e­fits ban for five years

Skip­ping down fur­ther…

The resur­gent far-right: How pol­i­tics across Europe has tak­en a shift from the cen­tre 
Aus­tri­a’s hard-right Free­dom Par­ty has a shot at shar­ing pow­er after elec­tions on Sun­day, hav­ing nar­row­ly lost out in a pres­i­den­tial vote last year.

A far-right par­ty has also had some suc­cess in Ger­many, in Sep­tem­ber becom­ing the first such par­ty to enter the Bun­destag since the end of World War Two, but their coun­ter­part in France is far­ing less well.
Here is a snap­shot of some of the far-right par­ties in Europe.

Aus­tria
The euroscep­tic and anti-immi­grant Free­dom Par­ty (FPOe) came close to win­ning the pres­i­den­cy in Decem­ber, which would have made its leader the Euro­pean Union’s first far-right pres­i­dent.

One of Europe’s most estab­lished nation­al­ist par­ties, it is fore­cast to come sec­ond or third in this week­end’s vote and could become junior coali­tion part­ners to the favourites, the con­ser­v­a­tive Peo­ple’s Par­ty (OeVP).

Found­ed in 1956 by ex-Nazis, the par­ty earned a stun­ning sec­ond place in 1999 elec­tions with near­ly 27 per­cent.

Last year its can­di­date Nor­bert Hofer nar­row­ly lost a pres­i­den­tial runoff against Greens-backed eco­nom­ics pro­fes­sor Alexan­der Van der Bellen.

Ger­many
The open­ly anti-immi­gra­tion and Islam­o­pho­bic Alter­na­tive for Ger­many (AfD) is the third-biggest par­ty in the Bun­destag after the Sep­tem­ber elec­tion, a polit­i­cal earth­quake for post-war Ger­many.
The par­ty took near­ly 13 per­cent of the votes, hav­ing failed in the 2013 elec­tion to make even the five per­cent required for rep­re­sen­ta­tion in par­lia­ment.
It has more than 90 seats on the bench­es of the par­lia­ment that meets for the first time on Octo­ber 24.

France
Marine Le Pen’s Nation­al Front (FN), found­ed by her fire­brand father Jean-Marie in 1972, took near­ly 34 per­cent of votes in the May pres­i­den­tial elec­tion run-off won by Emmanuel Macron.

Marine Le Pen’s Nation­al Front (FN), found­ed by her fire­brand father Jean-Marie in 1972, took near­ly 34 per­cent of votes in the May pres­i­den­tial elec­tion run-off won by Emmanuel Macron

This was dou­ble her father’s 17.8 per­cent score when he reached the sec­ond round in 2002.
In cam­paign­ing, Le Pen vowed to aban­don the euro, rein­state con­trol of the nation’s bor­ders and curb immi­gra­tion if she won.

But the par­ty fared bad­ly in June par­lia­men­tary elec­tions, tak­ing just eight seats out of 577.

Ten­sions since then burst into the open when Le Pen’s right-hand man Flo­ri­an Philip­pot quit and looks set to go his own way. 

Hun­gary
The Move­ment for a Bet­ter Hun­gary, known as Job­bik, is ultra-nation­al­ist and euroscep­tic. It is the sec­ond largest par­ty in the leg­is­la­ture but has been out­flanked by Prime Min­is­ter Vik­tor Orban’s own hard­line anti-immi­gra­tion stance.

Italy
The North­ern League is a ‘region­al­ist’ for­ma­tion that evolved into an anti-euro and anti-immi­grant par­ty that secured 18 seats in the 2013 par­lia­men­tary elec­tion.
The next gen­er­al elec­tion must be held by spring 2018 and the par­ty is hov­er­ing at around 14 per­cent of vot­er inten­tions.

Greece
The neo-Nazi Gold­en Dawn fin­ished third in the Sep­tem­ber 2015 elec­tion, with sev­en per­cent of the vote and 18 MPs. One lat­er defect­ed and the par­ty is now the fourth biggest in par­lia­ment.

Swe­den
The anti-Islam Free­dom Par­ty (PVV) of Geert Wilders (pic­tured) in March became the sec­ond par­ty in par­lia­ment, with 20 seats in the 150-mem­ber par­lia­ment

The Swe­den Democ­rats par­ty, with roots in the neo-Nazi move­ment, made a break­through in Sep­tem­ber 2014 to become the coun­try’s third biggest par­ty with 48 of 349 seats and near­ly 13 per­cent of the vote.
Nether­lands

The anti-Islam Free­dom Par­ty (PVV) of Geert Wilders in March became the sec­ond par­ty in par­lia­ment, with 20 seats in the 150-mem­ber par­lia­ment.

Bul­gar­ia
The nation­al­ist Unit­ed Patri­ots coali­tion entered gov­ern­ment for the first time in May after com­ing third in a March elec­tion. It is the junior par­ty in the gov­ern­ing coali­tion.

Slo­va­kia
In March 2016 the Peo­ple’s Par­ty Our Slo­va­kia ben­e­fit­ed from Europe’s refugee cri­sis to enter par­lia­ment for the first time, win­ning 14 seats out of 150.

REFERENCE: Not men­tioned in the arti­cle, but Marine LePenn’s father, Jean Marie LeP­ene was sent to Alge­ria (1957) as an intel­li­gence offi­cer. He has been accused of hav­ing engaged in tor­ture. Le Pen has denied these accu­sa­tions, although he admit­ted know­ing of its use.
Source: Le Pen, son univers impi­toy­able Archived 24 Feb­ru­ary 2012 at the Way­back Machine., Radio France Inter­na­tionale, 1 Sep­tem­ber 2006 (in French)