The Ring of Opportunism

To the urban observer, the ringing of an alpine bell evokes pictures of tranquil pastures and well-ordered rustic life. In modern Switzerland, however, that reassuring metallic chime has increasingly been transformed into a noisy instrument of political agitation.

When anti-lockdown protesters marched under the banner of the Freiheitstrychler, they were employing a strategy long familiar to Swiss campaign strategists. As Konrad Kuhn, an ethnologist teaching at the universities of Basel and Innsbruck, points out, traditional objects possess no inherent ideology. A hammered sheet-metal bell—lighter than the cast copper-and-tin alloy bells reserved for festive occasions—is inherently neutral. Its meaning is defined entirely by the context in which it is used, whether cheering on a national football team or marching through city streets.

Exploiting agricultural symbols for political gain is a long-standing tactic. During the 1992 campaign against joining the European Economic Area, Christoph Blocher famously walked at the head of groups carrying massive cowbells to anchor his stance in rural nostalgia. Because traditions lack the legal protections of commercial trademarks, political parties, notably the Swiss People’s Party (SVP), frequently weaponize folk symbols to bolster their provincial credibility.

In their original settings, these customs serve unifying community functions rather than partisan ones. In the Berner Haslital, the annual Ubersitz procession uses bells to banish winter spirits between Christmas and New Year; in the Engadin, Chalandamarz marks the seasonal transition to spring. Yet as agriculture loses its economic weight, its traditional tools are easily hijacked to serve ideological grievances.

Kuhn warns that converting shared cultural heritage into political weapons threatens the tradition itself. When an ancient custom becomes linked exclusively to partisan conflict, it loses its broad appeal and risks eventually disappearing. Modern Swiss wrestling, Schwingen, took the opposite path: once restricted to citizens with deep generational roots, it preserved its vitality by opening up to athletes with migrant backgrounds. If the bell-ringers wish to safeguard their heritage, they too may need to liberate their craft from those who use it as a weapon of division.

Written by Freya Stensrud freya.stensrud@alpineweekly.com