Political folklore, regulars' table and battering ram methods

The message was simple: "Radio and television are self-financing. Receiving contributions is voluntary; receiving broadcasts does not constitute an obligation to pay contributions." In other words, the anti-SRG regulars' table, cast in legal prose, as frequently nurtured by many right-wing politicians in recent years, be it cold warriors (Walther Hofer, SVP), market economy ideologues (Filippo Leutenegger, FDP) or lobbyists (Nathalie Rickli, SVP).
 
And now: the failure is huge. Not even 20,000 men and women entitled to vote have signed the popular initiative in the past 16 months. But the initiators of the Solidarity Switzerland (SOS) association refuse to give up. SOS President This Bürge, St. Gallen, is even spreading esoteric hope: "Like a small snowball getting bigger and bigger, the second initiative will be more successful than the first." He forgets that the snow melts every spring. So it is of little use that the failures want to start again next February. If necessary, a third, fourth, fifth time: "If we 'only' reach 20,000 or 30,000 signatures in the second run, we'll do a third. We'll get there!" So it will still take a while, Bürge calls it "battering ram tactics".
 
It may or may not be successful. In the city of Bern, the SVP and other right-wing politicians have already wanted to grind down the indoor riding arena five times by referendum. Supported by regulars' table slogans, of course. The result: last week, the council majority confirmed the service contract with the Reitschule cultural center for the next three years. And Bern's mayor Alexander Tschäppät (SP), a constant defender of the Reitschule, will be able to retain his office in next weekend's elections. His two bourgeois opponents are too weak. Even the left-wingers at Weltwoche could not avoid publishing a sympathetic portrait of Tschäppät last week, although they had it written by a "former WOZ columnist" (Weltwoche). Even Weltwoche opportunism has its limits.
 
I have digressed. The "SRG grinding" project is as much a part of Swiss political folklore as SVP complaints about the media. Currently in the nationally circulated Extra-Blatt. There, party president Toni Brunner claims that his party feels that "the goals, activities and successes" of his party are "often concealed". Does the loud man from Toggenburg not read newspapers, listen to the radio or watch television? Or does he think that the media should broadcast all SVP communiqués in full? And interview him every day? And if not him, then certainly a Christoph. And by the way, the SVP extra complains - rightly - about media concentration. However, it makes no mention of the emerging SVP media conglomerate: Basler Zeitung (BaZ or should we soon say Bazli due to falling circulation?) and Weltwoche and Ulrich Schlüer's Schweizerzeit and the Zürcher Bote and Blocher's television. And the Neue Luzerner Zeitung has also been the mouthpiece of the national conservatives for years. Why is Toni Brunner complaining? Is he striving for dominance? However, the Extra-Blatt also highlights the limits of the SVP: in the last elections, the party won a seat in the National Council in twenty (out of 26) cantons, but has only five members of the Council of States (in four cantons) and is only represented in government in eleven cantons. In other words: the SVP is the party with the most voters, but its candidates are rarely capable of winning a majority. Too much of the regulars' table damages credibility. Not only in media politics. P.S. SRG ratings still far exceed those of private broadcasters. The public broadcasters are obviously meeting a need.