Covid-19 sparks flood of letters to Swiss government

The more cases, the more letters © Keystone / Christian Beutler

The people of Switzerland have sent thousands of letters and emails to the federal authorities regarding the coronavirus crisis.

“Some say that this is the first time they’ve ever written to someone in the government. This shows how serious their concerns are,” Géraldine Eicher, deputy head of the federal communications ministry, told Swiss public radio, SRF, on Monday.

These days four out of five letters have to do with the coronavirus. Eicher said the moods covered the full spectrum, from friendly, praising, concerned and demanding to angry and desperate. In comparison to the spring the mood has darkened and there’s clearly a degree of Covid fatigue, she said.

One letter read, “To be honest, my hope has been gone for several weeks. I feel abandoned, lost and sometimes simply angry at the authorities’ inconsistent actions”.

Another one asked President Simonetta Sommaruga, “Do you still feel what’s happening to the people of this country?”

According to Eicher, the letters are something like a seismograph of society. They also show how concerned the population is. “If the number of cases increases, the number of letters increases.”