Column “Clarified and Enlightened” about Swiss politics: Switzerland, elections, media

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Phase 1 in advance: Most of the media, no matter how shrill and biased they may be, fear losses for the greens and red-greens; At the same time they whisper and warn about the increase
SVP; They expect a significant onslaught from the center left and the demise of the former state-supporting FDP, which they like to lament condescendingly.

Election Sunday Phase 2: As soon as the polls close, the media begins extrapolating information at high speed, from NZZ to watson.ch – non-stop until the evening. They calculate completely incorrectly, but in the end it is so: obvious +3.3% for the SVP, moderate +0.7% for the SP, expected +0.8% for the center, pitiful -0.5% for the FDP, really painful -4% for the Greens and -0.6% for the Green Liberals.

Phase 3 on Monday: A growing chorus of attempts at interpretation and classification. Move to the right – no, worse: move to the right! Yes, it’s really bad how fear mongering and problem solving led SVP to success. Foreign media are reportedly chattering about a resurgence of right-wing populism. As a sign of solidarity, we deplore the undeservedly poor performance of the Greens and Green Liberals. Then, of course: the center overtook the FDP, and the latter fades into the background because it fell into bed with the SVP. The women’s movement died out. The media believe that Switzerland is on the verge of collapse.

Stage 4, a few days later: The federal agency announces that it has miscalculated. April, April, SVP wins less than feared, Greens suffer fewer losses than expected, FDP remains ahead of the middle despite losses, Green Liberals record minimal losses. Is the media taking a break? No!

Phase 5: renewed panic: The Federal Statistical Office is the new killer of democracy because it undermines trust in institutions. But otherwise, things are much less bad for the media than expected. Switzerland is only close to the abyss.

The lesson here is that opinions are cheaper to create than facts. But the real scandal is that almost nothing changed in Switzerland on election Sunday, and not from the very beginning – that’s how it was. It’s always just a matter of a few percent. The new federal policy remains the same.

It’s actually crazy: wars are raging, the world is burning, and Switzerland is voting. And sometimes: nothing.

René Scheu is a philosopher and managing director of the Institute for Swiss Economic Policy (IWP) in Lucerne.

Source: Blick