PrintNovember 8, 2007
Political Islam Gets Switzerland's Goat
The face of European populism is, these days, white and bristly. And it answers to a comic name. Meet "Zottel," the billy goat mascot of the Swiss People's Party (SVP). Zottel, the party's "bleating" heart, was conscripted to enliven October's federal elections; and, as any Swiss will tell you, he's become a celebrity in his own right. He is familiar across the nation as title character of Alois Carigiet's "Zottel, Zick und Zwerg" (Anton the Goatherd), 1966 winner of the Swiss Youth Book prize. But most important, he is the party's partial answer to the question, posed by Samuel Huntington, of "Who Are We?" For reasons of Zottel's folksy appeal, and as much for his party's electoral weight, critical journalists have begun to describe Switzerland a "laboratory for populists." Belgium's Le Soir asked readers to shun the Alpine nation.But no matter: Zottel's handlers are bounding over the 29% they earned in October's vote. This cements...(Read Full Article)
