Twenty-First Century Populism: The Spectre of Western European ...

114 Twenty-First Century Populism
to face: unemployment went up (from 0.6 per cent to 5.2, between 1990 and
1997) (Oscar Mazzoleni, 2003b: 46), casual and part-time work increased,
exports suffered and economic stagnation caused the closure of companies
that had symbolized Swiss success (e.g. Swissair).
Although the Swiss economy had started to recover in 1997 (e.g. OECD,
1999), ‘growth of per capita income has been weak and considerably below
the OECD average for a number of years’ (OECD, 2006: 1). These economic
difficulties, besides making the lives of some less secure (especially those at
the bottom of the social scale, whose share of national wealth has decreased
steadily throughout the 1990s), have also added to the worries of those
spared the worst. The response of the executive to the crisis has been to push
for greater ‘modernization’ and ‘liberalization’, which are inevitably paid for
through even less job security. Moreover, the level of provision guaranteed
by the welfare system is now increasingly under scrutiny in a country that
shares with the rest of Europe the problem of an ageing population and a
shrinking workforce and there is huge pressure on the executive to restrain
social spending growth (OECD, 2006). All in all, the 1990s have provided
definitive proof that Switzerland was far less special and less safe than some
liked to believe. As a consequence, and mirroring what happens in other
countries, those who earn a good wage now increasingly support the Social
Democrats (Ladner, 2001: 138), while blue collar workers, as well as those
who feel the economic situation has deteriorated, are instead increasingly
voting for the party that wants to preserve Swiss exceptionalism.
Changing media
With about four in five participating voters (i.e. excluding abstainers) using
newspapers and television to make up their minds during campaigns
(Trechsel and Sciarini, 1998), the role of the media is here, as elsewhere,
crucial. Luckily for Europhiles, unlike the UK, Europhobia is not a constant
in the Swiss media. There are no campaigning tabloids (in the British sense)
and papers are naturally restricted to the three main linguistic regions, thus
striving to keep in tune with the area they serve (with the French-speaking
characteristically being pro-Europe). Different regions are served very differently
by the press, with the most populated being privileged in enjoying
a choice of more than one daily paper.
Overall, newspapers and especially television (most of which is public
service broadcasting) have not been enamoured with the language and rhetoric
of the ‘New’ SVP/UDC. However, to some extent this has actually helped
the party in its pursuit of its ‘new course’. Given the ‘us’ against ‘them’ logic
fostered by the party, when media criticism focuses on the SVP/UDC the
other bourgeois parties can be accused of receiving preferential treatment.
Adopting a typical populist strategy discussed by Gianpietro Mazzoleni in
this volume, Blocher has turned to his advantage what he perceives as punitive
treatment by the media, by accusing them of either being part of the