Fichenaffäre

The Fichenaffäre or Secret files scandal shook public opinion in Switzerland in 1989. That year, it was revealed that the Swiss federal authorities, as well as the cantonal police forces, had put in place a system of mass surveillance of anti-Swiss elements.

Following allegations that within the Federal Department of Justice and Police (EJPD), the Bundespolizei (BUPO, now Swiss Federal Police) 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. Files targeted Eastern European 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.

Furthermore, similar allegations concerning the Defence Ministry and its UNA department (Untertruppe Nachrichtensdienst 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 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 had revealed the existence of Gladio, a NATO stay-behind network in all European countries.

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