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On March 7, 2021, voters in Switzerland have thrown out a law governing a proposed electronic identity system. The result is a blow for plans by parliament and the government amid fears about data protection.

What made it even worse is that Bern intended to literally privatize the digital control. Suggestions for possible administrators were the Swiss banking and/or insurance systems.

It is likely that the proposal of privatization via the already mistrusted financial system enhanced the negative vote.

Final result showed 64.4% of voters – almost two-thirds – came out against the planned law of a so-called digital ID, also known as ID2020.

In a downplaying propaganda stunt, the government, mainly the Justice Department of the Federal Council, was pushing the need for a single access point for simplifying the use of online services offered by commercial businesses, as well as contact with public institutions via e-government channels.

If so, why then outsourcing and privatizing the highly sensitive task of people’s identity management?

In today’s world, we know what identity means. It includes every possible point of data and information about every citizen, such as health records, criminal records, financial/banking information, shopping and travel habits, with whom and when you meet – and much, much more.

The gfs.bern market and research institute pointedly commented after the vote: “Mistrust in private companies was dominant and helped to tip the vote.” 

In a press conference following the vote, Justice Minister Karin Keller-Sutter acknowledged “a certain unease” among voters. She called on parliament and critics of the failed plan to now cooperate to avoid a standstill.

“We have no choice and must work towards a new solution, even if it takes several attempts,” she told a news conference. “It is key for Switzerland to catch up with other countries when it comes to digitalization.”

This means in clear text – “We will push the digital ID through in one way or another, even if it counters the peoples democratically expressed will.”

At this point it may be appropriate to mention that Switzerland is proud host and offering her financial paradise to such dubious organizations as the World Economic Forum (WEF), the World Health Organization (WHO), The Bank for International Settlements (BIS) in Basel – all tax-exempt organizations.

Today the BIS, a privately-run institution, is known as the Central Bank of all central banks, basically controlling and/or monitoring the international flow of funds between most central banks of the world. During WWII the BIS was channeling US funds from the Federal Reserve to Hitler’s Deutsche Bundesbank for financing his war against the then Soviet Union.

Switzerland is also host to an international banking cartel that equals or surpasses that of the City of London.

“Neutral Switzerland” has long lost the luster of her Constitutional Neutrality, by blindly or submissively following the dictate, if not of the US, then of the European Union, mainly of the unelected European Commission.

Fast forward to Spring-Summer 2022.

It looks like Madame Karin Keller-Sutter’s undemocratic will has come through and is being imposed on the Swiss people, through the forced QR code, a devastating means of digitizing and controlling everything – every move you make, every step you take, every doctor you consult, every place you visit.

The QR code has been tightening the grip around the freedom of the world population. But it is now getting worse in Switzerland.

The QR code coercion, alias digital ID, is happening through the banking system – precisely the private sector that the Swiss people mistrust and vehemently rejected.

Has the Swiss government, the Federal Council, colluded with the banking system to impose the digital ID through the QR code – and through banking transactions?

Are you, Federal Councilors, risking the last bit of trust that you still may enjoy – after the fiascos with COVID management, with spinelessly following EU sanctions on Russia – and now by abolishing democracy altogether by imposing precisely what the Swiss public rejected a year ago with a two-thirds majority?

As of 1st October 2022, every bank and financial institution requires the use of a QR code to make a bank or ‘Postfinanz’ payment. There seems to be no escape. Whether citizens want it or not, we are being imposed a system which is aimed at becoming an absolute surveillance and control enslavement.

As it stands today, the QR code has a capacity to store at least 30,000 points of information about every citizen – and that potential may be expanded at will to practically unlimited capacity. That means that eventually the banks, managers of the system, will know you better than you know yourself. Depending on a citizen’s good or bad behavior, the banks may block your money or curtail the use of your money, temporarily or for good.

You may recall the Fichenaffäre or Secret Files Scandal that shook Switzerland in 1989, when it was revealed that the Swiss Federal Authorities, as well as the cantonal police forces, had put in place an illegal system of mass surveillance of the population. Secret files of some 900,000 Swiss citizens and foreigners were then established.

What the QR code will do is the Secret Files Scandal of 1989 on steroids – and legalized by the Swiss Federal Council. Or, is it legal – after the landslide No-Vote Referendum of 7 March 2021?

Esteemed members of the Federal Council, may I kindly ask you – on behalf of all my fellow citizens – to offer us an alternative way to comply with our payment obligations, one that does not require the use of a QR code. And most importantly, abandon the digital ID idea, once and for all. The Swiss people have democratically voted against it, with almost two-thirds majority on 7 March 2021.

The QR code, already encroaching every corner of our lives, has now for electronic banking been imposed by the private, alias banking sector.

It is not a federal law. Therefore, it is an obligation of the federal government to offer its citizens an alternative mode of complying with their payment obligations – one that does not use the QR code.

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Peter Koenig is a geopolitical analyst and a former Senior Economist at the World Bank and the World Health Organization (WHO), where he worked for over 30 years around the world. He lectures at universities in the US, Europe and South America. He writes regularly for online journals and is the author of Implosion – An Economic Thriller about War, Environmental Destruction and Corporate Greed; and  co-author of Cynthia McKinney’s book “When China Sneezes: From the Coronavirus Lockdown to the Global Politico-Economic Crisis” (Clarity Press – November 1, 2020).

Peter is a Research Associate of the Centre for Research on Globalization (CRG). He is also is a non-resident Senior Fellow of the Chongyang Institute of Renmin University, Beijing.