How is it possible that the president walks around in the train station taking a public train, no (visible) body guards and not a single person approaches him? What's different in this country?

Could Roger Federer walk around Zürich without causing commotion? Gorge Clooney? Taylor Swift?



—
Choice-Drawer3981

35 comments

  3. roger federer does just walk around in zürich regularly actually

  4. You don’t realize him in one second .

    He looks like a normal man who goes to work
    He looks like my old teacher, neighbor etc

  6. No, it’s only about our politicians. And this is the thing I love the most about my country. Should be like this everywhere in the world. 🌎

  7. I see 25 people each day that look like Parmelin lmao

    and also: most people couldn‘t name all 7 members of the Bundesrat. they don‘t care about politics. people just expect things to go somewhat smoothly and don‘t really care about individual politicians.

  9. IIRC the 2 people on his left are part of his team. But yeah, having the president of your country just behaving like a normal people doing their work is cool. The best of cool.

  10. Celebrities are people first. They don’t appear in public for everyone’s entertainment unless it’s a special occasion.

    I don’t have an answer to your question about CH, but I can tell you that this says more about people who DO go crazy about celebrities than those who don’t.

    Just leave people alone, it’s very simple.

  12. Because the executive is shared amongst seven people.

    Also, Swiss politics are delightfully boring. It’s functional and doesn’t run on hype or insults like US politics.

  13. Idk. I never understood the hype around “celebs” and especially what certain people do when they encounter one.

    For me ,every person, regardless if they’re an actor, astronaut, f1 driver etc. Is just another ordinary person. Nothing special.

    Do I have respect for certains people work (people I dont know personally)? ofc I do! But that doesn’t mean i would feel or act any different like on any other person…

  15. I think it depends on the celebrity and their fanbase. There have been instances where famous people like ishowspeed have been followed but that is mostly because his fanbase is rather young but generally we respect peoples privacy more than other countries and that also applies for celebrities. Were just not that crazy about them.

  16. Bundesrat don’t make a show of it, they just do their job. There’s no “the president” we have more like 7 “presidents”. Also, the president changes every year, so people probably don’t even know.

  17. Swiss people are rather reserved, so just approaching someone is just not something you would do unless you got a good reason.

    For politicians specificially, we just don’t fetishize them. Thats something that I always found so weird about other countries, exspecially the US: Those are officials elected to carry out the will of the people. They aren’t all that important. After a few years, they will step back and someone else will take their position and nobody (apart from a few politics nerds) will know their name a decade later.

  18. Because im proud of myself and i respect the other’s space …and my only idol is my son.

  19. Given that the (hierarchical) distance between politicians and ordinary people is minimal in the Swiss political system, that is well possible.

  20. There is not much culture of personality in politics. The least we hear of our politicians the better: it generally means they’re doing their job well. 

    And frankly we don’t want to hear about it.

  21. I’ve got better things to do than fuck with people’s lives for no reason

  22. we’re all human beiNgs, everyone is specialmin its own way

  23. In Switzerland most people have the mindset “Oh, I don’t want to bother them”.

    This results in some positive things, like celebrities not needing bodyguards.

    But it also creates an isolating atmosphere, which makes it very difficult to find new friends, if you didn’ already have them in school…

  24. We don’t really care about politicians, we mostly don’t see them as celebrities but as workers. For actual celebrities it’s a case by case basis. Depends on their fan demographic, it’s size and where they are.

  25. The President is just a normal person. And this is how it should be everywhere!

  26. Which president is this supposed to be? I thought it was jeremy clarkson.

  29. probably wouldn’t even recognize him and if I do it’d just be a curiousity.

  30. There is the famous story that Oprah went into a shop in Zurich and wasn’t sold a purse because well the Swiss don’t care about celebrities (and racism)

  33. Same in Austria. The Austrian president walks around Vienna, takes the tram, without lots of bodyguards.

  34. Because the “President” of Switzerland is elected by the Federal council . And the position is not held long and is mostly a roll that involves meeting other heads of state.
    Swiss mentality does not tend toward hero worship rather towards egalitarianism

  35. Privacy is strongly respected in Switzerland.

    That’s why so many celeberties like living here. No one bothers you. They may say “oh look it’s [name of famous person]” from afar to others that walk with them, but very seldom will famous people get approached, especially so when they are with family/other people. It would be rude/unacceptable to do so.

    I’ve seen quite a few celeberties from Clooney, Tina Turner, Roger Federer etc. They all just walk around in Switzerland without a bother.

    Also politicians here are far less seen as celeberties than burocrats. Just someone having a office position. 🤷‍♂️

Leave a Reply