Il presidente della Svizzera

Riccardo Mariani

10 h · 

La Svizzera rappresenta probabilmente il mio ideale politico, eppure di quel paese io non conosco nemmeno il nome del presidente, e non parlo solo di quello in carica. C'è l'America di Reagan e l'Inghilterra della Tatcher ma la Svizzera non è mai di nessuno. Forse il suo segreto sta proprio lì.

Is Switzerland’s celebrity-free politics an antidote to brand Trump?

‘“Who is the Swiss president these days?” I asked. There was a pause. “I’m not sure,” my Swiss uncle replied’

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Riccardo Mariani Mi accorgo che l'articolo non ha l'accesso libero, ne riproducono uno stralcio: Then I changed the subject, and asked my Swiss relatives if they could imagine their own political leaders tweeting. "Actually, who is the Swiss president these days?" I inquired as a preamble, feeling embarrassed that I had absolutely no idea of the answer.
Eventually Marco, my Swiss uncle, admitted that he was "not sure". 

"It used to be a woman -- Doris something," Katherine, my aunt, muttered. "But now? Er..."

Suddenly, it was my turn to experience culture shock. My Swiss relatives are well travelled, fluent in five languages and exceedingly knowledgeable about global affairs. But, they explained, nobody in their part of the Graubünden region worries much about their national president, let alone what he or she may have said on Twitter.

That is partly because Switzerland has a federal power structure whereby many political decisions -- and tax-raising powers -- are devolved to the cantons and municipalities. Moreover, one quirk of this structure is that the presidency rotates between the seven members of the country's federal council. Thus the president changes each year: last year it was Doris Leuthard; now it is Alain Berset.

But there is a bigger cultural issue here: in Switzerland, voters tend to see politics as being about functions and institutions, not about personalities.