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Swiss special mode: Germans wonder about their stubborn neighbor
“How can rich Switzerland fail like this?” Asks a German newspaper. Germans seem concerned and at the same time in awe of Switzerland, where many cantons are very relaxed.
Balloons 70: At the National Council, Federal Councilor Ueli Maurer is congratulated on his birthday. Meanwhile, compliance with the minimum distance is waived.
It is not just the “Snow War”, as “Spiegel” headlines, that makes many Germans gaze in awe at the small neighboring country to the south. Despite calls from Chancellor Angela Merkel and other top European politicians, Switzerland wants to keep the ski slopes open during the holidays. Above all, it is the strategy of the Swiss crown that is viewed with concern in Germany.
While Germany seeks its salvation in constantly changing measures in the style of a “breakwater blockade”, Switzerland has remained true to its liberal crown policy for weeks. In Germany pubs are closed, theaters and cinemas and in most federal states so are sports halls, but the figures are stagnant at a high level. Meanwhile, locals gather in Bern’s old town for a coffee chat, and the numbers are dropping in a strange way.
With the highest mortality rate in Europe
However, the German media are mostly critical of the Swiss strategy. Corona numbers were among the highest in Europe, as was the death rate, and some hospitals were threatened with collapse. And even if the crown numbers have recently fallen, they are still at a significantly higher level than in Germany.
The devastating numbers were not hidden from ZDF or ARD. The media portrays rich and liberal Switzerland as a country where health is not always placed above the economic well-being of the state. “You can see next door how things are going when you let it all go on regardless of the economy,” the ARD “Contrast” journalist presented a dramatic report on the situation of the Swiss crown in November.
The consequences of a lax policy are serious. “There are no longer regular intensive care beds in Switzerland.” The station’s reporters filmed mainly from the hospital in Sion, where the situation was really precarious and it was said that if ventilators were missing, if in doubt, fragile, those over 85 could no longer receive intensive care.
German television at the location of the “Superspreader wedding”
Meanwhile, ZDF sent a team of reporters to Schwellbrunn in Appenzell, where an October wedding had become a “wide-spread event” and the reporter said: “Many here think Corona is an impossible dream. A little later, the report said: “Let him go as much as you can. The people’s motto seems to be the motto of the whole of Switzerland. “
The newspapers view the Swiss style above all with awe. Last week, conservative magazine “Cicero” asked “Blick” editor-in-chief Christian Dorer in an interview to explain the Swiss approach. Dorer explained the principle of agreement to the German magazine, which “automatically leads to moderate solutions.” “We do not have a government with a head of government who is solely responsible and can simply order how he wants to do it.”
The newspaper “Welt” published two contradictory headlines about Switzerland in just seven days. “The failure of the Swiss crown’s strategy,” he said on November 19. A week later, the same author headlined a feature article in the same newspaper with the headline: “Unblocked change: what’s behind the Swiss mean.”
Newspapers criticize Ueli Maurer’s “balancing of interests”
Almost all the media found cynical the assessments of the Minister of Finance, Ueli Maurer, who had explained that Switzerland “consciously assumed a certain risk”, “because we weigh interests”. Another quote from the senior vice president is tried over and over again: “We can’t afford a second lockdown, we don’t have the money for that.”
This week, the Berlin “Tagesspiegel” compared Switzerland with Sweden. “In a few weeks, the Swiss Confederation has become an international focus of the crown epidemic,” states the left-liberal newspaper. And it begs the question: “How can rich and well-organized Switzerland fail with an internationally prominent healthcare system?”
