The two-minute video isn¡¯t subtle. Wielding a medieval halberd, the president of the conservative Swiss People¡¯s Party lays out the choice Switzerland faces: a simpler life that the country¡¯s founders spelled out in a one-page declaration more than 700 years ago or a 2,000 page treaty with the European Union.
It¡¯s a choice between ¡°freedom and serfdom,¡± Marcel Dettling says before tossing the treaty documents onto a bonfire.
The trouble for Dettling and Switzerland¡¯s other EU naysayers is that the alternative vision of a nimble nation trading freely with the rest of the world isn¡¯t looking so good anymore. On the day the video was released ¡ª Aug. 1, Switzerland¡¯s national day ¡ª the White House delivered a bombshell by announcing the country would face tariffs of 39% on all exports to the U.S., among the highest anywhere in the world.
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