Christoph Blocher’s final speech to the Swiss People’s Party

Christoph Blocher in the Albisgüetli. © Keystone / Ennio Leanza

Swiss billionaire and former government minister Christoph Blocher announced his retirement from politics on January 19 in front of colleagues from the right-wing Swiss People’s Party. SWI swissinfo.ch was there.

Zurich ends at the foot of the Uetliberg hill. The snow-covered city centre is glowing, while the pitch-black forest looms above. At the edge of the forest is the Albisgüetli shooting range, where the People’s Party under Blocher’s leadership embarked on its journey, transforming into Switzerland’s largest party.

Standing on the Albisgüetli stage, Blocher reminds his audience of how it all began. Exactly 36 years ago, young left-wingers wanted to abolish the Swiss army which would have ended the longstanding tradition of obligatory field shooting. Every Swiss soldier keeps a gun at home, and to ensure they remain familiar with their weapons, they are regularly called upon to practise their shooting. This is why Switzerland has so many shooting ranges.

Against this background, Blocher, who was a regimental commander of the army, decided in 1988 to confront those who sought to abolish the army. He called a meeting at Switzerland’s largest gun clubhouse in what would become the first Albisgüetli conference.

“Exercise eye and hand for the fatherland,” is the motto of the shooters. “This is perfect for us,” says Blocher as he continues his Albisgüetli speech in which he often talks about “us”.

“Us versus them” has been the underlying message of almost everything Blocher has said during his political career.

Less flamboyant

Apart from possibly having lost some vigour in his voice, the 83-year-old Blocher doesn’t have any obvious health issues. His appearance is less dominant, his gestures less flamboyant, and he is less confrontational. He has fought his battles and won his victories. He has even come to terms with his greatest defeat: when parliament voted him out of government in 2007. But he still seems to be ashamed of his power, which he has always denied having.

Power is met with scepticism in Switzerland, and he quickly understood that. He has never been big, but the more powerful he became, the smaller he made himself. He learnt the art of self-irony, to always tilt his head and keep his nose down.

Today, Blocher is certainly more mocking than he used to be. Ridiculing requires little strength. Even his enemies appreciate his wicked sense of humour which has raised many laughs among audiences.

Blocher talks, the party listens. swissinfo.ch

Here at the Albisgüetli Blocher is a legend. He is the hero who saved Switzerland from joining the European Economic Area in 1992. He is the strategist who, with his party, first outperformed the two other major centre-right parties and then demoted some of them to junior partners.

The media call him the Swiss People’s Party’s godfather, while the president of the party’s Zurich branch referred to him as “grandfather” during the Albisgüetli event. They are family.

But outside the heated venue, danger is still looming: patriotism fatigue, immigration of foreigners and emigration of the rich who worry about the inheritance tax the political left wants to introduce.

Over the past 36 years Christoph Blocher has made the Albisgüetli stage a place of power from where he gives his orders as the year gathers momentum.

Blocher’s speech lays out the annual agenda of the People’s Party, whose ideas reach Switzerland’s farthest corners. Whether it’s at the municipal, cantonal or federal level, party members repeat his slogans.

Playing the game to perfection

This is how the party sets its political agenda: it pushes other groups in one direction or another and increases its voters’ support. The party keeps everyone on their toes by constantly threatening to launch referendums and popular initiatives. When the People’s Party acts, others have to react.

Blocher played this game to perfection. It earned him a lot of disapproval, sometimes disgust, but also awe and devotion within his own ranks. “Blocher is Trump before Trump,” Trump adviser Steve Bannon said in Zurich in 2018. Many people now regard the Swiss People’s Party as the avant-garde of European right-wing populism.

The Swiss People’s Party has tackled many issues, but they all have one thing in common: us and them.  

Tonight is Blocher’s last speech. But nobody knows it yet, not even his closest allies.

One of the guests at Albisgüetli is publisher Matthias Ackeret. He has recorded a weekly video podcast with Blocher for the past 17 years, 855 episodes so far. “The Albisgüetli speech is his biggest project every year,” Ackeret says. He says Blocher usually spends six months writing it, rewording it again and again. “He needs at least 20 drafts until it’s perfect.” 

“The world has gone crazy; we’re holding out.” This is the title of the speech, which is yet another variation on the “us versus them” theme. With “them” he refers to other groups such as the media and academics. “We have too many academics, but not enough clever people,” Blocher says.

‘Good cows must be milked’

Clever people, in Blocher’s opinion, study tax law. They do good and help many others avoid taxes. And as if this were not a contradiction in terms, he continues: “When I did my agriculture training, my teacher taught me to milk the good cows, not kill them.”

Gesticulating, Blocher draws pictures in the air – they are beautiful and menacing at the same time. He also uses slogans that are a must for any performance, just like a good band needs big hits.

“The Swiss are not superior to others. However, they are a bit less bad because they have a better form of government. In Switzerland, it’s harder for politicians to create nonsense.”

Blocher is multi-faceted: he is a billionaire entrepreneur and an officer, a farmer’s boy and a pastor’s son, and he managed to bring all these different facets to his party. This is how the Swiss People’s Party, which used to be the farmers’ party, became a magnet for entrepreneurs and attracted right-wing and value-based conservatives.

The Albisgüetli still attracts many multimillionaires, officials and dignitaries. Here they can be ordinary people and share a table with ordinary people. Blocher calls them all “loyal and kind fellow country people”.

Identity and difference

“Us versus them”. The essence of identity and difference is that you need “them” to find out what “us” means by comparison. This is the only way you can be sure.

The special thing about this conference is that the others – or “them” – also have a space here. For example, the incumbent Swiss president always gets invited.

Before dinner, Blocher talked and received a huge applause. After dinner, a government minister talked and received a decent applause. Hardly anyone booed or whistled.

A hall that unites: view of the Albisgüetli shooting range. © Keystone / Ennio Leanza

However, last year, when Alain Berset held the rotating Swiss presidency, he did not show up. This year President Viola Amherd was absent and so was the newly elected justice minister, Beat Jans. They are no longer playing along.

This year Pierre-Yves Maillard, president of the Swiss Trade Union Federation, stepped in and attended the conference. He is currently lobbying for a popular vote that calls for higher pensions. His aim is to have 13 monthly pension payments instead of 12.

‘That’s it’

The number of Swiss People’s Party representatives in Bern has increased from 31 in 1988 to 68 today, many of whom are very wealthy. Blocher, for example, has an estimated family fortune of about CHF15 billion ($17.4 billion); he has always financed his politics himself.

With a fortune of CHF4 billion, Swiss car mogul Walter Frey is a significant sponsor of the party. So is banker Thomas Matter, who is worth CHF200 million.

They all sit closely together at the Albisgüetli and form a powerhouse of CHF20 billion. Even in Switzerland this is a lot of money. The country spends around CHF10 billion on education a year.

At the end of the evening, Blocher simply says from the stage: “that’s it”.

An accordion player and a contrabass player join him on stage. This was to be his last Albisgüetli speech. Blocher sings his own personalised version of the traditional Swiss folk song “Dr Schacher Seppli”. He describes how he would knock on heaven’s door and ask for admission.

And that’s it? “He will fight for the central goals of the People’s Party until his death,” reassures People’s Party’s group leader Thomas Aeschi, while parliamentarian Thomas Matter says: “He is the talent of the century and is irreplaceable. But we have broadened our support.”

Blocher often walked the fine line between ridicule and vilification without falling. But what will happen once he is gone?

“We are all down-to-earth people with a good education,” says Matter. “We have to make some noise as otherwise nothing will happen in this country.”

In the 2023 general elections, the Swiss People’s Party achieved its third-best result – without Blocher. Instead of focusing on him, people focused on one central issue. “There are too many immigrants, and not the right kind,” was the consensus.

For this reason, many in the People’s Party believe their common political interests will continue to keep the party together.

The last word

But at this very moment, it does not look good for the party’s unity. A big issue is currently splitting the party with the leaders being on one side, grassroot members on the other. It’s the issue the guest speaker is lobbying for, namely an increase in the monthly pension payments.

Maillard wants to push it through, while the People’s Party is opposed to it.

Maillard receives a round of applause for his speech. There was no objection. This is tradition at the Albisgüetli: Blocher lets his guest have the last word.

A retired member of the People’s Party is waiting for the trade union boss at the bottom of the stage. He has a favour to ask and wonders whether Maillard could make sure that pensions are exempt from tax in the future. “Could you please do something about it?”

In the end, one’s own interests take priority over everything. This has also sunk in with Swiss People’s Party’s voters.

Edited by Benjamin von Wyl. Adapted from German by Billi Bierling/ts