Coronavirus: “The Federal Council seems to have less control over the end of the crisis” – Switzerland

Seniors can kiss, but cannot keep, their grandchildren. This message delivered Monday by Daniel Koch, seemingly contradictory, knows a rather nuanced explanation: the Federal Office of Public Health (FOPH) fears that the grandparents will start to get closer to their children, generally registered in working life . But when you talk to as many people as possible, the nuances are very difficult to get across to the general public. The lighting of Marie Deschenaux, specialist in crisis communication.

In a crisis situation, can we really send a subtle message?

No. We must popularize as much as possible to be understood by all. In a crisis communication cell, we have what is called a “naïve”, an ordinary person, who has no knowledge in the field concerned, to which the experts will turn. If this person does not understand what is said to him at the first attempt, it means that nobody will assimilate the message. We must therefore review the copy.

Can we say that for the past ten days, the communication from the Federal Council and the OFSP has been wavering?

I will not go that far. So far, the Federal Council, embodied mainly by Alain Berset, has held the line. The OFSP and Daniel Koch, who is a pillar, also. But both for the example of grandparents and for schools, the answers have become less clear. And people are protesting, also because the message is changing. You couldn’t kiss your grandchildren anymore, now it’s your children you shouldn’t be around. The same goes for schools: we were told that the little ones were vectors of viruses, and they were the first to return to class. We feel the confusion of people. From the outset, the Federal Council, with the broadcasting of press conferences live, has been very transparent. There, he gives the impression of less mastering the way out of the crisis. Alain Berset’s phrase, “We advance as quickly as possible and as slowly as necessary” illustrates this well. I think that this Wednesday the Federal Council will come back to these questions at length and clarify the message.

If you had been part of the communications team, what would you have advised?

Daniel Koch’s sentence is an answer to a question from a reporter, which partly explains his lack of clarity. We should have anticipated. Perhaps it was a choice not to broach the subject. We must also take into account the amplifying effect of social networks. A lot of information was given that day, but it was that sentence that came out.

On social networks, people get nervous. After Guy Parmelin’s “sloth pillow”, the impression is that communication is starting to fail.

It’s not an awkwardly dropped phrase on TV. It was published in the written press, carefully read by a team of communicators. This interview was given to a German-speaking newspaper (editor’s note: but also published in “Le Matin Dimanche”), for an audience which has a very different perception of the crisis than in French-speaking Switzerland. Guy Parmelin is a Vaud UDC. There was a weighing of interests: this time he chose to seduce his electorate and the economy rather than the region where he comes from. We must also pay attention to political recovery. The parties, hitherto very withdrawn, are starting to emerge from the woods.

Created: 04/28.2020, 20h22

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