The ''Fichenaffäre'' or Secret files scandal shook

public opinion Public opinion is the collective opinion on a specific topic or voting intention relevant to a society. It is the people's views on matters affecting them. Etymology The term "public opinion" was derived from the French ', which was first use ...

Switzerland ). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...

in 1989. That year, it was revealed that the Swiss federal authorities, as well as the

cantonal The 26 cantons of Switzerland (german: Kanton; french: canton ; it, cantone; Sursilvan and Surmiran: ; Vallader and Puter: ; Sutsilvan: ; Rumantsch Grischun: ) are the member states of the Swiss Confederation. The nucleus of the Swiss Con ...

police forces, had put in place a system of

mass surveillance Mass surveillance is the intricate surveillance of an entire or a substantial fraction of a population in order to monitor that group of citizens. The surveillance is often carried out by local and federal governments or governmental organizati ...

of the population.

The scandal

Following allegations that within the

Federal Department of Justice and Police The Federal Department of Justice and Police (german: Eidgenössisches Justiz- und Polizeidepartement, french: Département fédéral de justice et police, it, Dipartimento federale di giustizia e polizia, rm, ) is one of the seven departme ...

(EJPD), the ''Bundespolizei'' (BUPO, now

Swiss Federal Police The Federal Office of Police (Fedpol, german: Bundesamt für Polizei, french: Office fédéral de la police, it, Ufficio federale di polizia, rm, Uffizi federal da polizia) of Switzerland is subject to the Federal Department of Justice and Po ...

) charged with domestic intelligence was secretly and illegally keeping secret files on both Swiss citizens and foreigners, a special parliamentary commission (PUK EJPD) was established. It gave its report in November 1989, demonstrating that the BUPO had kept more than 900,000 files in secret archives.The British Secret Service in Neutral Switzerland
, Daniele Ganser, in ''

Intelligence and National Security ''Intelligence and National Security'' is a peer-reviewed academic journal focused on the role of intelligence in international relations and politics. The journal was established in 1986 by Christopher Andrew and Michael I. Handel as the first ...

'', Vol. 20, nº 4, December 2005, pp. 553–80 (p. 557). Files targeted

Eastern Europe Eastern Europe is a subregion of the Europe, European continent. As a largely ambiguous term, it has a wide range of geopolitical, geographical, ethnic, cultural, and socio-economic connotations. The vast majority of the region is covered by Russ ...

an nationals, but also Swiss citizens, organizations, firms, and various political groups, mostly on the left. The scandal led to the reorganization of the BUPO, which since 1992 has been observed by a delegation of a Parliamentary Commission.

Second commission and discovery of P-26

Furthermore, similar allegations concerning the

Defence Ministry {{unsourced, date=February 2021 A ministry of defence or defense (see American and British English spelling differences#-ce.2C -se, spelling differences), also known as a department of defence or defense, is an often-used name for the part of a g ...

and its UNA department ('' Untertruppe Nachrichtendienst und Abwehr'') emerged, to the effect that they too were storing files. The Defence Department denied these charges, but a new parliamentary commission (PUK EMD) was formed in March 1990, under the direction of Senator Carlo Schmid, with the task of investigating the Defence Department. In November 1990, this second commission confirmed the existence of secret, illegal files, as well as revealing the existence of P-26, a secret

stay-behind In a stay-behind operation, a country places secret operatives or organizations in its own territory, for use in case an enemy occupies that territory. If this occurs, the operatives would then form the basis of a resistance movement or act as sp ...

army, and a secret intelligence gathering unit called P-27, both hidden in the Swiss military secret service UNA. Only a month before, the Italian prime minister

Giulio Andreotti Giulio Andreotti ( , ; 14 January 1919 – 6 May 2013) was an Italian politician and statesman who served as the 41st prime minister of Italy in seven governments (1972–1973, 1976–1979, and 1989–1992) and leader of the Christian Democra ...

had revealed the existence of

Gladio Operation Gladio is the codename for clandestine "stay-behind" operations of armed resistance that were organized by the Western Union (WU), and subsequently by NATO and the CIA, in collaboration with several European intelligence agencies during ...

, a

NATO The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO, ; french: Organisation du traité de l'Atlantique nord, ), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental military alliance between 30 member states – 28 European and two No ...

stay-behind network in all European countries.

Transfer of files

The police files themselves were transferred to the

Swiss Federal Archives The Swiss Federal Archives (german: Schweizerisches Bundesarchiv, french: Archives fédérales suisses, it, Archivio federale svizzero, rm, Archiv federal svizzer) are the national archives of Switzerland. Additionally, the cantons have offici ...

. A jurist, René Bacher, was designated "special officer" to take care of the political scandal. 300,000 people requested to see their files following the revelation of their existence.Les services de renseignements suisses
, p. 27. The records are open to public access for historical research when the last entry is older than fifty years. More recent records may be open on request. Records on living people are closed to public access for reasons of confidentiality.

2005 trial

Left-wing activists had been the object of surveillance by Swiss authorities since the 20th century. In 2005, a Swiss trade-unionist indicted for having blocked public transport in

Geneva Geneva ( ; french: Genève ) frp, Genèva ; german: link=no, Genf ; it, Ginevra ; rm, Genevra is the List of cities in Switzerland, second-most populous city in Switzerland (after Zürich) and the most populous city of Romandy, the French-speaki ...

was surprised to see that the police files contained all of his activities since 1965, although he had never been indicted before. The court had asked the police for his file. Rémy Pagani, also a member of the '' Syndicat des services publics'' (SSP, Public Services Trade-Union) and MP for the ''

Alliance de gauche An alliance is a relationship among people, groups, or states that have joined together for mutual benefit or to achieve some common purpose, whether or not explicit agreement has been worked out among them. Members of an alliance are called ...

'' (Left-wing coalition, a party based in Geneva), confirmed during the same trial that the file listed his presence in demonstrations where he had not been arrested, as well as his participation in the occupation of a building in support of

Nelson Mandela Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela (; ; 18 July 1918 – 5 December 2013) was a South African Internal resistance to apartheid, anti-apartheid activist who served as the President of South Africa, first president of South Africa from 1994 to 1 ...

, although he had not been arrested either for this act.L'inculpation des syndicalistes fait resurgir les fiches
, ''

Le Courrier ''Le Courrier'' (literally "The Mail") is a Swiss French-language daily newspaper published in Geneva. Founded on 5 January 1868, it was originally supported by the Roman Catholic Church, but has been completely independent since 1996. Mainly ...

'', March 1, 2005 . According to Rémy Pagani, Bernard Ziegler, state counsellor in Geneva, had ensured after the files scandal that only those files containing information on crimes for which the citizen had been convicted would be kept. However, the 2005 trial showed that it hadn't been the case.

References

External links

Parliamentary motion
from the

Member of the Swiss National Council Member may refer to: * Military jury, referred to as "Members" in military jargon * Element (mathematics), an object that belongs to a mathematical set * In object-oriented programming, a member of a class ** Field (computer science), entries in ...

Josef Lang Josef may refer to *Josef (given name) *Josef (surname) * ''Josef'' (film), a 2011 Croatian war film *Musik Josef Musik Josef is a Japanese manufacturer of musical instruments. It was founded by Yukio Nakamura, and is the only company in Japan spe ...

on the non-censored publication of the Cornu report (administrative investigation on the relations between P-26 and others similar organizations in Europe) {{Authority control Political history of Switzerland Surveillance scandals 20th century in Switzerland 1989 in Switzerland 1989 in politics