Switzerland: Two and a half years later, WEF returns to its quarters in Davos

Global political and economic elites after a two-year epidemic They are making their comeback This Sunday in Davos, the dominance of the war in Ukraine will be high. The final edition of the World Economic Forum (WEF) was launched in January 2020 at the Grabandon Sky Resort. We started to worry about a mysterious disease that appeared in China, but the bosses were weapons between Donald Trump and climate activist Greta Dunberg.

This year’s meeting, WEF founder Klaus Schwab, said the forum has been “one of the most timely and important” since its inception 50 years ago. “Russia’s occupation (…) will be seen in the history books as the fall of the order of birth after World War II and the Cold War,” he said during a conference this week, promising to do everything Davos could support. Ukraine and its restructuring.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zhelensky will be the first head of state to address a video conference on Monday. Many Ukrainian politicians will travel in person. On the other hand, we do not see the usual groups of Russian participants. Exclude Russians According to WEF President Porge Brende, “the right decision”. “However, respecting the UN Charter and its international obligations, we hope that Russia will take another path (…) in the years to come.”

While the shadow of war in Ukraine hangs over the entire meeting, the agenda announces discussions on topics ranging from climate change to rising energy prices and fears of a global food crisis, including gender inequality, football or metawares. But Davos is above all famous for the debates organized on the sidelines of the official show. With great moments like the first ministerial meetings between the two Koreas in 1989 or the debates between apartheid South African President Frederick de Clerk and then dissident Nelson Mandela.

Another 2,500 participants have been announced this year, including several business leaders and more than 50 state and government leaders, including Federation President Ignacio Casis. The poster features the new German Chancellor Olaf Scholes, the Emir of Qatar Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani or the US Ambassador for Climate Chan John Kerry, but no big stars like China or the US President.

Even today, while the suitability of the forum is often called into question, it attracts economic and political leaders and many critics alike. “In this Davos, at this festival of wealth, I think we will see how unequal our world has become,” said Nabil Ahmed, an official with NGO Oxfam, which is campaigning to impose higher taxes on the rich and creating one of the Davos regulators. “It is important to go to Davos to challenge the authority, to present the facts, to speak directly with these governments and institutions and to raise the voices they do not hear,” he said.