Something kind of special happened on the Grütli meadow on Wednesday, and since most of you reading this are in North America you probably haven't heard.
The background
Around 700 years ago representatives of three small cantons in the pre-alpine hills around the Lake of Uri gathered in this little meadow - accessible to this day only by boat and a long hike - to declare mutual allegiance in their struggle to remain independent of the Hapsburg dynasty.
The Swiss still consider this event to be the founding moment of their Confederation, and it works well as an emotional focal point to the notion of strength through unity and that this country was built upon. They celebrate this idea on the First of August each year around the country, but especially at Grütli where there's a traditional gathering addressed by whoever holds the rotating presidency of the confederation.
The Boneheads
Sometime around 2000 the boneheads, as neo-nazi youth in Switzerland are called, started using the First of August at Grütli as their main annual rally. Although the police and others estimate the number of boneheads to be only around 600-800 in the whole country, their presence can make quite an impact at an event which can only comfortably accommodate 2000 or so spectators.
Yes, bonehead is a deliberate mis-translation of "skinhead". By the time they appeared here it was well understood that there are "good skins" and "bad skins". Everyone involved would prefer to avoid the confusion.
In 2005 several hundred neo-Nazi youth attending the event shouted down National Councillor Samuel Schmidt (at the time President) when he underlined the importance of integration of new immigrants into Swiss society. Apparently the nazi skins had expected him, a member of the far-right UDC party, to deliver a speech more to their liking. At any rate they managed to prevent Schmidt from speaking for several minutes calling him a "pig" and "Judas".
The build-up
This year Micheline Calmy-Rey is President of the Confederation, and as both a woman and a representative of the left-most party in government, the Social Democratic party, it was expected that her speaking at Grütli would surely bring out the worst possible behaviour, and highest turnout amongst the boneheads. The cantons concerned having had enough in previous years tried to simply cancel the event, but Calmy-Rey insisted that she would speak at Grütli. For the last several months she's been waging a campaign to encourage families and especially newly nationalized immigrants to attend.
For weeks the press in Switzerland has been building up the event as one of huge and possibly dangerous confrontation, either at the event itself or at the boarding of the steamboat for the meadow. The cities of Lucerne or Schwitz braced themselves for a night of rioting by angry right-wing youth. Worse still, the right-wing parties in governement managed to cut off funding for the event not wishing to provide Madame Calmy-Rey with a political platform just two months before a national election.
The result
Finally a few days before the event it became clear that various community groups had raised enough money to hire the boats, security, etc. to put the event on, and so the cantons of Lucerne, Schwitz, and Uri gave their blessings. People made their hotel reservations.
It was sunny and warm on Wednesday which was a pleasant surprise in and of itself for this unusually rainy summer, and the turnout reflected the weather. Among the thousands who turned out for the steamboat to the meadow most were families, including large numbers of immigrants from all parts of the world. A band played. Fashion models in tight swiss-flag t-shirts were photographed hugging the President. All was well with the world.
Somehow it's a little bit of an anti-climax, but it just makes me grin to see the slideshow.
