Joseph Hanimann on populism in Switzerland

The election campaign in Switzerland prompts Joseph Hanimann to reflect on how the populism of the Swiss People's Party (SVP) and its top candidate Christoph Blocher differs from that of other countries: "While populism in other European countries appears rigid, belligerent, bitter and vulgar, the populism of Christoph Blocher and his SVP has a surprisingly professional and rational air about it that makes it particularly disturbing... Unlike Le Pen's Front National in France or the northern Italian or Flemish regionalists, the Polish nationalists or Haider's liberal patriots and other fundamentalist European movements against globalisation, the SVP has no need for aggressive slogans, deliberate provocations or sacred principles and instead always sounds somewhat too low-key. And precisely this quality makes it more audible than its sister parties and prompts moderate reactions even from its opponents in the name of common sense."

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