President Karin Keller-Sutter is quickly in the Lötschental valley. She has the crisis situation explained to her and flies over the disaster area in a helicopter, whereby the published image is very similar to that of then US President George W. Bush, which triggered a shitstorm during the 2005 floods in New Orleans. In contrast to Bush, the President of the Swiss Confederation does not just fly over the area, but meets the affected population in person after the flight in the Lötschental and encourages them.
The “Laschet-Moment”
At the first media conference after the landslide in Blatten, the two Federal Councillors Pfister and Rösti chat casually and gesticulate. Pfister laughs, then Rösti laughs too. It’s almost a “Laschet moment”: in 2021, German CDU chancellor candidate Armin Laschet had visited flood areas and laughed when Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier spoke about the victims. Laschet’s laughter was the turning point in the German election campaign. However, our two Federal Councillors were lucky that the scene was ‘only’ observed by media representatives, but no photos were taken. The tabloid media in Germany are probably even more ruthless than here in Switzerland.
