She devotedly cares for her black-nosed sheep. He participates in the Freiberg Horse Breeding Association.
The Federal Assembly has elected a Federal Councilor: Albert Rösti, the charming cosmopolitan from Kandersteg, where trains run south through a tunnel into the wide world; Elisabeth Baum-Schneider, free-spirited enchantress from Les Breuleux, where the anarchic spirit wafts over the pastures of the Jura.
In her acceptance speech, she admitted, “Well, I’m charming, of course, but I’m also honest and can work very seriously…”
Where is something similar? In Switzerland.
Both federal advisers offer a political quality. You are as a member of the Council of States and a former member of the government of the canton of Jura. He is both a national adviser and a former party chairman.
Does that say everything? Or do elections carry a message?
Albert Rösti, in his speech on the adoption of the elections, formulated the following phrases: “The prerequisite for democracy is the freedom of the individual. Because freedom gives the opportunity to freely discuss different points of view before making a decision. Democracy is impossible without open, honest discussion. It may sound a little trite, but this is the fundamental difference between our form of government and autocracies and dictatorships.”
A liberal can make such a commitment to fair, free debate. Even a Christian Democrat can say so. And also a Social Democrat. But a leading member of the populist SVP?
Albert Rösti can do it. From his lips, these words sound like liberation. As if they came from the heart. In fact, the speech of the new SVP of the Federation Council sounded cordial, joyful, carefree. Carefree from what?
He isn’t bothered by the grouchy, grumpy, spiteful undertones that have shaped this party’s rhetoric over the years, making it distasteful to Democrats, even if some of the content seems coherent and highlights real issues.
The tone of the populist party, which has made Swiss populism synonymous with malicious polemic, is being dictated by the Herrliberg ruler, who is known to flare up in humiliation and malice towards political opponents.
Evil lightning, destructive thunder against the culture of joy in an objective enemy: the politics of Carl Schmitt instead of the friendly spirit of like-minded people.
The enemy is the enemy.
Yes, Christoph Blocher, the financial and political dominant of the Swiss People’s Party, damaged democratic self-perception by bringing everything political to power.
A failed Federal Councilor once commented on the question of what would happen if he became a Federal Councilor: “Switzerland would be better (…) The people would still have something to say (…) I would allow effective opposition (…) “.
“People” – “there is still something to say” – “to resolve the opposition”
Albert Rösti is free from the stuffiness of authoritarian power. Berner freed the SVP from the Herrlibergers – from the Zurich dwarfism of an important party. He frees Switzerland from the poison of the anointed with martial goodness and cheerfulness.
It may be so.