Singing Swiss president causes disharmony

Keystone

President Micheline Calmy-Rey's announcement that she will be singing a popular tune on a Saturday evening television show has struck a wrong note with some critics.

Experts point out the changing role of the media in the traditionally staid Swiss political system and question the role of self-publicity.

Foreign Minister Calmy-Rey, who holds this year’s Swiss presidency, chose a song made famous by French chanteuse Edith Piaf, Les trois cloches (The three bells).

The song has already been recorded and will be broadcast on May 19 on the Les Coups de Coeur Saturday evening entertainment programme on French-language Swiss television.

“It’s not a simple song, but she sings well and was quick to pick it up,” the show’s presenter Alain Morisod was quoted as saying in the Le Matin newspaper.

News of Calmy-Rey exploits was not well received by everyone – especially some critics in the majority German-speaking part of the country.

Wrong tune

“Cabinet ministers should not sing,” Urs Altermatt, professor of history at Fribourg University, told the Mittelland Zeitung newspaper.

There is a danger that politics could be reduced to entertainment and to downmarket humour, Altermatt continued.

Other critics criticise entertainment-minded cabinet ministers as being concerned with “self presentation but having no content”.

The president has since hit back at her critics. “I think that contact with the population can also be made through the media, for instance radio and television, and that’s why I’m doing it,” she said.

Zurich University media expert Mirko Marr agrees that Calmy-Rey – who regularly tops the popularity polls – could reach a wider public, but says her strategy is not without risk.

“We observe that politicians are more and more using entertainment as a means to gain attention,” Marr told swissinfo.

“However, they are running the risk of trivialising their political concerns.”

“Moritz Leuenblogger”

Calmy-Rey’s foray into the world of French chanson comes shortly after Communications Minister Moritz Leuenberger launched a blog – to great success.

The user-generated website attracted almost 900 contributions in ten days after going online earlier this month.

Marr said the blog could promote Leuenberger’s image given his communications mandate, but it was still open as to whether it would be a platform for launching new topics and content.

He added it was normal for the media to react critically to politicians trying new media, especially as blogging could bypass journalists. Nevertheless, a blog’s success depended on media reports – good or bad.

“It’s often the case that negative reports stimulate interest,” said Marr.

Leuenberger is in good company. United States presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton has one, as do French presidential hopefuls Nicolas Sarkozy and Ségolène Royal.

Calmy-Rey and Economics Minister Doris Leuthard are said to be considering their own blogs.

Differing relations

Marr said politicians in Switzerland interact differently with the media compared with other countries.

The country does not depend on the media to create political attention, he added. Electoral adverts are not allowed on television and there is not so much personality or opposition-based politics under Switzerland’s consensus system.

That does not mean, however, that the other cabinet ministers never use the media for their own ends.

Interior Minister Pascal Couchepin has his own column in the tabloid Blick since December in which he explains “turns of phrase and pearls of wisdom”.

Meanwhile Justice Minister Christoph Blocher is not averse to appearing in magazines to show off his huge collection of Swiss paintings by Albert Anker and Ferdinand Hodler.

It has also just been announced that he will put in a guest appearance in a Swiss comedy show on television.

Perhaps the biggest surprise comes from the normally straight-laced Finance Minister Hans-Rudolf Merz, who while a parliamentarian wrote tales of “farmers, sex and taxes” – some of which have since been published in Blick.

swissinfo, Isobel Leybold-Johnson

Political crooners and talents

Former Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi apparently fancies himself as something of an Elvis impersonator.

While at Oxford University, British Prime Minister Tony Blair played guitar and sang in a rock band called Ugly Rumours.

Former US President Bill Clinton is a talented saxophone player. He gave a performance on a popular TV show during his presidential campaign.

Former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has released a CD, for which he co-wrote the songs. He was a crooner on a cruise ship before becoming a billionaire.