Last but not least: Leuenberger's duck

Media Minister Leuenberger has apparently personally put out a false report: In an interview with the Neue Luzerner Zeitung published on Saturday, the Federal Councillor said that SVP man Ulrich Giezendanner had ordered an opinion poll on the construction of a second Gotthard road tunnel and then leaked it to the Sonntagszeitung. He therefore casts doubt on the validity of the survey, according to which a majority want the second tunnel. In general, Leuenberger does not seem to be a fan of opinion polls: "A referendum is something completely different. You're not surprised by a phone call while you're cooking fish and have to say yes or no immediately so that nothing burns in the kitchen." The piquant thing - to stick with kitchen jargon - is that the Sonntagszeitung vehemently rejects the claim that it published a survey commissioned by Giezendanner: in fact, the newspaper itself commissioned the survey from the opinion research institute Isopublic. According to Sonntagszeitung editor-in-chief Andreas Durisch wants to see the Federal Council's false statement corrected in the Neue Luzerner Zeitung. It will be interesting to see whether his colleagues in Central Switzerland respond. And whether Leuenberger will comment on the issue in his blog. He likes to criticize the media there, for example under the nice title "I am the summer slump".