LETTER FROM GENEVA

Who says Switzerland is isolated? Every year, come mid-January, the Swiss press carefully and enthusiastically draws up a list of the prestigious "elites" expected to attend the World Economic Forum (WEF), a gathering of the world's top business and political leaders in a Brutalist-style convention center under heavy police and military protection

From Tuesday, January 16, the resort in the Alpine canton of Graubünden (south-east) will host, in random order: Sam Altman of ChatGPT, French President Emmanuel Macron, Bill Gates, Chinese Premier Li Qiang and US Secretary of State Antony Blinken. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky will make an eye-catching physical appearance (and not by videoconference, as in the two previous years), unless he cancels at the last minute, "due to war in that country," as specified in a press conference by WEF officials, who love nothing more than to trumpet the casting of their headliners.

Proof of the importance Berne attaches to the event: Six of the seven Swiss federal councilors will be present. Davos provides an opportunity for the Swiss Confederation to place itself at the center of an increasingly tense global game for a few days, in which its neutrality complicates its task. The Swiss ministers will also take advantage of the opportunity to re-establish contact with the European Commission, a link that has been severed for the past three years. The president of the European executive, Ursula von der Leyen, is scheduled in Davos, as is European Commissioner Maros Sefcovic, in charge of the difficult Swiss dossier in Brussels.

A total of 2,800 leaders and businessmen from 120 countries will be attending, including more than 60 heads of state. They will be rubbing shoulders with a plethora of CEOs from the world's largest multinationals, who pay a hefty entrance fee (up to €600,000 for "strategic partners") to be part of this global networking circle. For years, some conspiracy circles have been imagining this to be one of the pilot posts of liberal globalization, as the Bilderberg Group would also be.

According to the Zurich daily Neue Zürcher Zeitung, itself of liberal persuasion, "Davos is, on the contrary, an increasingly meaningless ritual, a kind of entertainment show," where foreign ministers mingle with celebrities who have little to do with world affairs. A few years ago, Bono, from the Irish pop group U2, was a big hit, as was the American actress Angelina Jolie before him. Both performances were mocked and not repeated.

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