Why is Switzerland being called a 'banana republic'?
Switzerland was referred to as a "banana republic", after news of the errors in Sunday's election vote count came out. But is this depiction justified?
“The Federal Statistical Office carried out quality checks on its electoral statistics and noted an error in the calculation of party strengths aggregated at the national level," the government statement said on Wednesday.
READ ALSO: Swiss admit election count errors
While such miscalculation, attributed to "incorrect programming of the data import software" in three cantons, is rare in Switzerland, it nevertheless evoked some strongly worded reactions from the country’s politicians and media alike.
The most critical one came from a weekly magazine, Die Welwoche.
“Can you actually make yourself more ridiculous as a state than by making mistakes when calculating the election results?” it wrote. “Are we on the way to becoming a banana republic?”
This term is usually used when describing a poor and politically precarious nation (with or without bananas), rather than wealthy and stable Switzerland.
You would think that such a derogatory remark would spark outrage from the magazine’s readers, most of whom are supporters of the right-wing Swiss People’s Party, which won most seats in Sunday’s parliamentary election.
But the opposite happened.
In the comments section of the digital version of the magazine, a number of readers actually agreed with this assessment.
“We are not on the way to becoming a banana republic. We have been this way for a long time already,” one said.
Another commentator added: “We are a banana republic like Germany. It's a shame about the formerly neutral and sensible Switzerland.”
“Who can actually believe anything that comes from Bern, the capital of the banana republic?” yet another reader pointed out.
As the article was published this week, and not on April 1st, we can assume it is legitimate and not a dubious joke.
And Die Weltwoche’s comparison of Switzerland to a banana republic is not exactly unprecedented.
In March, when the news broke of Credit Suisse’s collapse, Peter V. Kunz, a professor of economic law at the University of Bern, said that “foreign investors may wonder if Switzerland is a banana republic where the rule of law doesn’t apply.”
Whether or not these depictions accurately depict Switzerland is a different matter.
But they have certainly gone bananas.
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“The Federal Statistical Office carried out quality checks on its electoral statistics and noted an error in the calculation of party strengths aggregated at the national level," the government statement said on Wednesday.
READ ALSO: Swiss admit election count errors
While such miscalculation, attributed to "incorrect programming of the data import software" in three cantons, is rare in Switzerland, it nevertheless evoked some strongly worded reactions from the country’s politicians and media alike.
The most critical one came from a weekly magazine, Die Welwoche.
“Can you actually make yourself more ridiculous as a state than by making mistakes when calculating the election results?” it wrote. “Are we on the way to becoming a banana republic?”
This term is usually used when describing a poor and politically precarious nation (with or without bananas), rather than wealthy and stable Switzerland.
You would think that such a derogatory remark would spark outrage from the magazine’s readers, most of whom are supporters of the right-wing Swiss People’s Party, which won most seats in Sunday’s parliamentary election.
But the opposite happened.
In the comments section of the digital version of the magazine, a number of readers actually agreed with this assessment.
“We are not on the way to becoming a banana republic. We have been this way for a long time already,” one said.
Another commentator added: “We are a banana republic like Germany. It's a shame about the formerly neutral and sensible Switzerland.”
“Who can actually believe anything that comes from Bern, the capital of the banana republic?” yet another reader pointed out.
As the article was published this week, and not on April 1st, we can assume it is legitimate and not a dubious joke.
And Die Weltwoche’s comparison of Switzerland to a banana republic is not exactly unprecedented.
In March, when the news broke of Credit Suisse’s collapse, Peter V. Kunz, a professor of economic law at the University of Bern, said that “foreign investors may wonder if Switzerland is a banana republic where the rule of law doesn’t apply.”
Whether or not these depictions accurately depict Switzerland is a different matter.
But they have certainly gone bananas.
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