The delights of Swiss politics
One of the things that strikes you when you visit Switzerland is the silence, says Matthew Engel. Sundays are still observed with “eccentric zeal”, but it’s little different on weekdays. “No traffic noise, no footsteps, no chatter… some visitors find it a bit chilling, sinister even.”
But it’s of a piece with the country’s politics. There is no single head of state and little interest in the political “minutiae and manoeuvres” that obsess other countries. Power is “thoroughly devolved” and every Swiss adult receives about six times a year a “thick envelope seeking binding referendum votes”. Yet this does not fuel enthusiasm for politics. Turnout is often below 50%.
There are “other delights”. “Everything and everyone is clean.” The trains “glide serenely and punctually across the country” and 16% of all journeys are made by rail, three times the average in Britain. There is little fear of low-level crime. The Swiss obey laws governing behaviour at home that are mostly unwritten and enforced by peer pressure. The rules of a Swiss Sunday are “fierce and unique”: no laundry, no car washing and no lawn mowing, and nearly all shops are closed. Owners of apartment blocks usually codify their own rules: no pets, no music, no loud laughter. “Manners are compulsory.”
The fact that there is still conscription is one factor that might help explain the sense of national togetherness. But there is another: business. “The business of Switzerland is business,” says one Swiss journalist. “The main job of the federal government is to coordinate the framework that allows business to operate. Ruthlessly if necessary.” The crucial beneficiaries of this are the banks, big pharma, Nestlé and a few arms dealers. And while there is free movement for people, unwelcome business competitors get a “cool reception”. Their homegrown supermarkets, Migros and Coop, dominate the high streets, and Aldi and Lidl find it hard to get a look-in. Amazon has no foothold in Switzerland, and it is complicated and pricey to get its packages from abroad.
Not all have admired the result. The Swiss are “not a people so much as a neat, clean, solvent business”, said William Faulkner. Jonathan Raban was less admiring: “A whole country of phobic hand washers living in a giant Barclays Bank.”
“And yet. You can argue whether this is the world’s most beautiful country, but it is surely the least ugly. Houses on mountainsides are usually repulsive; Swiss chalets look as though they were carefully placed by God. Even the politics has a rare beauty about it… There’s nowhere else like it.”