Low-key politicians shun Twitter as Switzerland prepares to vote

As the world’s attention focuses on the social media-driven frenzy of another US election, voters heading to the polls this Sunday in Switzerland are faced with a more old-fashioned approach to campaigning: leaflets, placards and face-to-face meetings.

In keeping with the Alpine nation’s collaborative style of politics, which eschews highly personalised campaigning, both politicians and voters have shunned Twitter and Facebook in this month’s national campaign despite being overshadowed by Europe’s refugee crisis and fears of uncontrolled immigration.

Swiss politicians and parties were getting “much less engagement and buzz than those for the UK general elections,” said Robert Lang, chief executive of Socialbakers, a social analytics company. “They are less active on social, are receiving fewer interactions on their posts, and are being mentioned fewer times by social media users.”

Opinion polls indicate a swing to the right, with support increasing for the veteran ultraconservative Christoph Blocher’s Swiss People’s party (SVP), which is expected to take as much as 28 per cent of the vote.

The campaign, however, has been fought by traditional means. In the penultimate week of campaigning, the number following the SVP on Twitter rose by just 2.5 per cent. The other main Swiss parties saw rises of 1 per cent or less, according to Socialbakers. In the same week, the Swiss parties typically saw a dozen or so interactions per 1,000 Twitter follows — compared with figures in excess of 100 for the main political parties at the same stage in the UK election.

Switzerland is famous for its political neutrality and stubborn refusal to join the European Union, even though it is located in the geographical heart of the continent. But its social media aloofness reflects its consensus-based political system.

“Probably Twitter favours politicians who are straight-talking like Donald Trump, for example, rather than those who try to accommodate everyone,” says Balthasar Glättli, a Green politician who is among the most prolific on Twitter, with 14,000 followers. Swiss politicians, he reckons, are also older on average than counterparts in other countries — and nervous about virtual-world gaffes.

Rather than national campaigns, electioneering is focused in the 26 cantons. Appenzell Innerrhoden, the smallest, has a population of just 16,000 and still holds annual meetings of eligible voters to decide on local affairs and appoint top regional officials.

“To reach people, it is enough to go to the main town in a canton and stand in the market place at the weekend,” says Adrian Rauchfleisch, a communications researcher at Zürich university. Twitter in Switzerland remains an “elite network,” used mostly by journalists and other opinion formers, he says. “It is not a good channel to reach people, because penetration is so low.”

Twitter does not break down penetration rates by country, but academics assume it is significantly lower even when compared to other countries which have been slow to adopt its form of 140-character communications, such as neighbouring Germany.

The frequent use of national referendums means Swiss parliamentary elections have less buzz than in other countries, adds Silvia Bär, the SVP’s deputy general secretary in Bern. Moreover, with campaigns locally-focused, central campaign teams are thinly-staffed — so there is often nobody left to Tweet.

“We only have 14 people employed on a national level for all the work to be done — not just campaigning,” says Ms Bär.