This chapter analyzes interviews with four policymakers to illuminate how multilingualism is understood, valued, and managed at the institutional level. It explores their perspectives on federalism, cantonal autonomy, language education, and the growing role of English. While all interviewees affirm multilingualism as central to Swiss identity, their accounts reveal tensions between symbolic ideals and practical realities. Policymakers describe structural fragmentation, uneven implementation of language strategies, and the marginalization of minority and heritage languages. They also note ambivalence toward English: valued for accessibility and mobility but seen as a potential threat to linguistic reciprocity among national languages. Using Spolsky’s and Shohamy’s frameworks, the chapter shows how beliefs, practices, and covert mechanisms shape policy beyond formal documents. Drawing on Hornberger and Stroud and Heugh, it highlights how institutional discourses of equality coexist with limited support for linguistic citizenship, particularly for speakers of non-national languages. The chapter concludes that policymakers themselves recognize the paradox of Swiss multilingualism: it is upheld as a national value while constrained by tradition, institutional inertia, and competing linguistic economies.