Attacks on Swiss politicians: rare, but not unheard of

In September 2021, Swiss police had to use water cannons to push back protestors from parliament buildings in Bern. Keystone-SDA

Physical attacks on Swiss politicians are rare, and the number of threats has declined in recent years. However, the Federal Office of Police (Fedpol) still registered an average of one reported threat per day last year, the Keystone-SDA news agency reports.

In 2023, Fedpol received 290 reports, 238 fewer than in 2022. At the height of the coronavirus pandemic, when anger towards politicians spiked, there were 1,215 annual reports.

However, the nature of the threats has recently been worrying and the tone has been particularly nasty, Fedpol wrote in its 2023 annual report. In 62 cases, threats were serious enough to warrant action – ranging from issuing warnings to pressing criminal charges.

Polarising political topics in Switzerland and around the world lead to heated discussions, particularly on social media, Fedpol reported. This in turn can lead to emotional reactions which regularly result in threats against people in need of federal protection.

Since autumn 2022, members of parliament and judges have been able to submit reports of such threats via a Fedpol-created app, which forwards the information directly to security services.

Historic examples

There have been several attacks on politicians in Switzerland in the past. The most blatant case in recent history was in Zug’s cantonal parliament in 2001, when a gunman stormed into the chamber, killing three members of the government and eleven members of parliament and injuring 15, some critically, before killing himself.

Two decades later, in September 2021, protesting citizens – largely opponents of the authorities’ coronavirus measures – attempted to storm the parliament building in Bern. The police used water cannons, tear gas and rubber bullets to stop them, leading to various injuries.

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In 2019, two Swiss People’s Party politicians and authors of the conservative weekly Weltwoche, Christoph Mörgeli and Roger Köppel, were attacked by left-wing extremists who threw drinks over them in a Zurich café.

In the run-up to a People’s Party conference on January 21, 2011, former parliamentarian Hans Fehr was attacked by several people wearing black masks, thrown to the ground and then punched and kicked. The attackers were allegedly part of the radical left-wing scene.

On August 1, 2007, an explosive device detonated on the historic Rütli meadow in central Switzerland after a Swiss National Day celebration, where former Social Democrat government minister Micheline Calmy-Rey was present. No one was injured.

The perpetrator of the attack – apparently a lone offender – was later arrested.

Further back, in 1990, a group of separatists from the Jura region threw tomatoes and eggs at Radical-Liberal government minister Kaspar Villiger in Pruntrut, telling him to “go back to the Swiss swamp and stay there”. Villiger was uninjured.

In 1984, a bomb detonated at night beside the house of government minister Rudolf Friedrich, also from the centre-right Radical-Liberal party. The damage amounted some CHF20,000 ($22,359) and there were no injuries. At the end of July 1998, Friedrich’s home in Winterthur burnt to the ground in an assumed arson attack.

The same year, there was also an attack on the house of Social Democrat Hedi Lang, then a member of Zurich’s government. She managed to escape with just a fright.

Adapted from German by DeepL/dos

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