Paul Rechsteiner The decision of the Swiss government on May 26th to end the seven-year negotiations on an institutional framework agreement with the European Union came as a surprise to many—if moreso in Brussels than in Berne. At the heart of it was Switzerland’s wage-protection policy. For their consistent resistance to wage dumping, the Swiss trade unions have been sharply attacked as ‘left-wing nationalists’, despite their manifestly pro-European stance. For the unions the rejection of the draft framework agreement was not however about any ‘Swissexit’ but about advancing social Europe. In the aftermath of the announcement, a series of text messages were published in