Thank you for your comment. I agree with your analysis regarding the reduced number of knowledgeable foreign journalists and the resulting difficulties for detailed and accurate commentary. However, in the case of the media coverage of recent events in Switzerland, I believe something else is at stake.

I understand that it is difficult to accurately capture the nature of Swiss politics and the very different political system of this direct democracy. I also believe that it is necessary and legitimate to criticise an election campaign that has been interpreted as xenophobic by both international and national observers – especially as the events in Switzerland, as the Independent says, are nothing but a test-case of how Western democracies are dealing with problems they are facing since the end of the cold war.

However, I do not believe that linking the Swiss People’s Party to the Nazi regime (both through images merging the swastika and the Swiss cross and by criticizing its policy proposals as Nazi practices) and calling it extremist has simply been a mistake by journalists who are not knowledgeable enough to know better.

I – a political scientist, not a media expert – believe it is simply “sexy” to shock with such comparisons. It makes the events in Switzerland that usually do not really interest anybody (except when Switzerland is accused of taking its pick from the EU-menue, and even that is usually not really covered extensively) a lot more interesting. What has been written about Switzerland has of course not been made up or is entirely false, it just has been exaggerated to an extent that is hard to bear for Swiss people who worry and care about their image in the world.

I hope that there will be some media coverage abroad also after October 21, even if, or rather especially if things calm down and go their usual Swiss concordant way after the elections. If some journalists who are interested in the outcome have some questions regarding its interpretation, they are more than welcome to give us a call.

Thank you again for your comment. We really appreciate your interest in the issue.

Bianca Rousselot

As a result, much US and even UK coverage of Switzerland is provided either by wire services (which are often good, but they have a different role) or by correspondents who are passing through and have little knowledge of the Swiss system, political or otherwise.

This is a tough problem to fight and I think your efforts here to set the record straight are a good idea. We’ll be linking to this blog post from GenevaLunch (www.genevalunch.com), which is a year-old news site in English for the Lake Geneva region: we are carrying our own coverage of the elections. Our coverage is not as intense as Swiss coverage, since many of our readers are not voters, but one of our goals is to provide other, foreign, media who operate in English with a better understanding of the issues.