How a Swiss Dialogue Became a Fabricated Scandal

A routine Swiss dialogue forum became a false scandal when VOX Kosova cited NZZ for a meeting it never reported, then refused correction after public clarification.

I did not plan to write this piece when I woke up on 6 January 2026. I was following the news with the ordinary alertness that comes from long habit, coffee cooling beside me, tabs open from Zurich to Prishtina, nothing yet signalling that the day would demand anything more than routine attention. At 05.30 Swiss time, Neue Zürcher Zeitung published¹ a reported analysis by Tobias Gafafer on Switzerland’s long standing role in facilitating discreet dialogue between Kosovo and Serbia. I read it carefully, as I always do with NZZ, because its strength has always been discipline rather than drama.

The article described something familiar to diplomats and analysts who have followed the region for a decade or more. Switzerland hosts informal dialogue formats in Solothurn two to three times a year². These are not negotiations. They are not secret summits. They are confidence building spaces that include representatives from governing parties, opposition figures, and civil society. According to s…