Dear German-speaking Swiss, I have been working with you for more than ten years and I must confess: I love you. Sometimes even more than my French brothers and sisters. I love you for your strictness, compared to it we are a team of chaotic people. As far as your right is concerned, we are far too often frugal and say, “It’s all right.” And also for your wine and your gastronomy, which are better than ours (in Romandy I will be scolded for this).
Therefore, as a friend, my advice to all German-speaking Swiss who have become a pillar of salt since the announcement of the election of Elisabeth Baume-Schneider: take a deep breath, everything will be fine!
In fact, I have good news: the experience of being a minority will benefit you and move you forward. It will make you the best Swiss!
I speak from experience: we Italians have been in the minority for nearly two centuries. Being in the minority builds character. German-speaking Switzerland will become stronger in this (of course, short) period.
We Italians, for example, often have to put up with voting results that do not meet our expectations. But this is a democracy, and therefore we take it quite calmly.
Perhaps in the future we French will be a little more visible to you German speaking Swiss. The weekend was the beginning: all the German-speaking journalists who were on their way to Basel to receive the future Federal Councilor Eva Herzog and then had to rush to Delémont and Les Breuleux JU found there a social and economic reality that was completely alien to them. In any case, it is very different from the affluent rural areas of German-speaking Switzerland. You can see what the wealthy German-speaking Swiss cantons pay into the financial equalization system.
We French are in the majority now, and we can introduce ourselves.
And you German-speaking Swiss might have noticed that we are not just nonchalant and charming. Starting with the woman who just brought Le Breleu to the Federal Council.