HAUPTBEITRÄGE
DOI 10.1007/s11614-016-0200-3
Österreich Z Soziol (2016) 41:213–242
The visual construction of “the people” and “proximity
to the people” on the online platforms of the National
Front and Swiss People’s Party
Elsa Gimenez · Natalie Schwarz
© Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden 2016
Abstract The article explores and compares how the online communication of
the National Front (FN) and Swiss People’s Party (SVP) visualise and deﬁne “the
people” and “proximity to the people” in the wake of the Swiss federal elections
and the French regional elections in 2015. Considerations based on netnography,
discourse analysis and visual culture studies inform the corpus-based approach of the
study. The results of the analysis show signiﬁcant differences in the way each party
represents itself: the FN visually frames itself as a party for the people whereas the
SVP portrays itself as a party of the people. This is due to distinct ways of depicting
the relation between party representatives and citizens as well as the “in-group”.
Keywords Visual culture · Right-wing populism · Front National · Swiss People’s
Party · Online communication · Discourse analysis
Die visuelle Konstruktion des „Volkes“ und der „Volksnähe“ in der
online-Kommunikation des Front Nationals und der Schweizerischen
Volkspartei
Zusammenfassung Der Beitrag untersucht und vergleicht, wie die Online-Kommunikation
des Front National (FN) und der Schweizerischen Volkspartei (SVP) das
„Volk“ und die „Volksnähe“ kurz vor den Eidgenössischen Wahlen in der Schweiz
und den Regionalwahlen in Frankreich im Jahr 2015 visuell darstellen und deuten.
Überlegungen auf der Grundlage der Netnographie, Diskursanalyse und den Visual
E. Gimenez ( ) · N. Schwarz
Lab Capitalism, Culture and Societies (LACCUS), UNIL University of Lausanne, Building Géopolis
- Ofﬁce 5330, Quartier Mouline, 1015 Lausanne, Switzerland
E-Mail: Elsa.Gimenez@unil.ch
N. Schwarz
E-Mail: Natalie.Schwarz@unil.ch
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214 E. Gimenez, N. Schwarz
Culture Studies bilden den korpus-basierten Ansatz der Studie. Die Ergebnisse der
Analyse legen dar, dass Zeigekonventionen der einzelnen Parteien den FN eher als
eine Partei für das Volk und die SVP als eine Partei des Volkes rahmen. Dies indem
die Beziehung zwischen politischen VertreterInnen und BürgerInnen oder die „WirGruppe“
unterschiedlich visuell konstruiert werden.
Schlüsselwörter Visuelle Kultur · Rechtspopulismus · Front National ·
Schweizerische Volkspartei · Online-Kommunikation · Diskursanalyse
1 Introduction
In this article, we examine the visual practices of the National Front (Front national,
FN) and the Swiss People’s Party (Schweizerische Volkspartei, SVP)1
on their ofﬁcial
online platforms. More precisely, we study and compare how the web visuality of
the FN and SVP as right-wing populist parties portray and construct “the people”
or their relationships to them. This question seems important since scholars roughly
deﬁne populism as the act of publicly taking the side of the people in order to defend
their interests against an elite or as a “cult of the people” with its various connotations
(popular sovereignty, popular culture etc.) (Taguieff 2012: p. 39). Consequently,
concepts of populism ﬂuctuate between “appeal to the people” and “cult of the
people” (ibid.). This speciﬁc research interest is due to several considerations and
observations:
Many Western European countries are currently shaped by right-wing populism,
which has not remained unnoticed by the research community. Although a rich
scholarly literature on this topic can be found today, our article is innovative for
several reasons. Putting into perspective two right-wing populists parties reveals
several commonalities: their great success in their respective countries, their similar
political agendas, their apparent interest in the web as communication support2
and
the fact that both their countries held elections in 2015 (ﬁg. 1).
The FN and SVP operate in countries with differing political systems, cultures
and historical backgrounds. These variables will be considered when interpreting
and comparing their respective visuals on the web. Another reason why our study is
innovative is its focus on the visual online practices of these two parties. Previous
(but rather rare and isolated) studies on the visual communication of the FN and
SVP have mainly studied campaign posters (cf. Demarmels 2009; Dézé and Girod
2006; Haver (in press); Maire and Garufo 2013 for the SVP; Novak 2011 for the
FN). Against this backdrop, the article also seeks to broaden existing knowledge of
the visual strategies of the FN and SVP by shifting the focus on their web visuals.
The research question was inspired by preliminary observations on the online
platforms of the FN and SVP revealing a prevalence of photographic images rep-
1 The Swiss People’s Party is also known under its French and Italian appellation Democratic Union of
the Centre (UDC).
2 In the second half of the 1990s, both parties launched a party website; the ﬁrst political parties of their
countries to do so (cf. Dézé 2011; Skenderovic 2009).
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Fig. 1 Tweet of Marine Le Pen commenting on the positive election results of the SVP. She signiﬁes its
victory as proof that people from all over Europe are saying no to migratory ﬂows and are thus approving
the FN’s and SVP’s political positions3 (Accessed on 28.10.2015)
Fig. 2 The website of the national SVP displayed a “pin board” at the time of the study, on which it
relayed the latest posts from its social media accounts6
(Screenshot taken on 27.10.2015)
resenting different types of people at various kinds of events and settings. Consequently,
our visual data mostly inform about how the FN and SVP visually mediate
speciﬁc visions of persons rather than topics. Further observations also disclosed
four recurrent categories of persons within their respective photographic production
for the web: the citizens, the supporters, the party leaders and other party candidates.
These categories in particular frame visions of “the people” or the party’s relation to
3 While Switzerland held Federal elections for the National Council and the ﬁrst round of elections to the
Council of States on 18 October, France had regional elections on 6 and 13 December. These elections took
place in time for our study since election campaigns have become moments of increased visual production
(Knieper and Müller 2004: p. 7).
6 This pin board was not analysed by Luginbühl (2014) since his study ended shortly before the party
changed its web appearance in 2014 and newly included content of social media. However, we can say
that the way the SVP uses its online platforms has not fundamentally changed since Luginbühl’s study (cf.
introduction).
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Fig. 3 Front page of the FN’s ofﬁcial website embedding content of MLP’s Twitter and Instagram
account (Screenshot taken from the ofﬁcial website on 27.10.2015)
them. Perspectives of discourse analysis as well as existing knowledge about rightwing
populism, the Swiss and French context and the visual communication of both
parties have ultimately informed our approach and analysis.
We chose to prioritise the focus on visual practices and not to study how the
FN and SVP address the issue of online participation. However, this undoubtedly
important question was raised by Munoz (2005) and Bonhomme and Stalder (2006)
for example. They both seek to measure “technical democracy” on the websites
of the FN and SVP, which Web 2.0 is supposed to promote. In this regard, their
studies revealed a lack of organisation by both parties to administer and take up
exchanges with users. It was also found that the main function of the FN’s and SVP’s
websites is self-promotion. Following this logic, their home pages serve primarily
as show-cases to encourage users to ﬁnd out more about the party. A more recent
study on the FN’s web communication (Boyadjian 2015) shows that its websites,
social networking and sharing platforms have two main functions: to capitalise on
the number of likes, subscribers and “fans” and to implement a standardisation
strategy with the aim to align the layout of the own website to those of other French
parties (e. g. banner visuals). Finally, Luginbühl (2014) describes how the SVP
and Young Socialists of Switzerland use the web for political communication (i. a.):
both parties have their own websites and are present on social networking sites
(Facebook, Twitter) and social sharing sites (YouTube, ﬂickr) via personal accounts.
A closer look revealed however that their websites remain to be the most central
information portals. Furthermore, both parties seldom use the potential of Web 2.0
for their websites or social media platforms (e. g. by posting in real time, conceiving
new content for social media or reacting to comments to enable direct discussion
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Fig. 4 Social media “Pin board” on the ofﬁcial site of the National SVP (Screenshot taken from the
ofﬁcial website of the national SVP on 27.10.2015)
between the party and the citizens). Consequently, they limit themselves to one-way
communication.
Our article is divided into four sections. The sections Theoretical framework and
Methods of data collection and analysis elaborate on the way we approached the
publicised visuals on the online platforms of the FN and the SVP at the time of
the study. The section Empirical ﬁndings and analysis presents the results of our
visual analysis. The Conclusion summarises major ﬁndings and seeks to explain
similarities and differences between the web visuals of the FN and SVP.
2 Theoretical framework
In this study, we look at visuals as produced in and by particular social domains
because all institutions in society have their own rhetoric, visual imagery or technological
apparatus in order to convey speciﬁc meanings or interpretations of the
world for particular purposes (Clarke 2012: p. 244 f.; Evans and Hall 2010: p. 2).
In this sense, we consider any visual product of the FN and SVP as constructed and
both parties as producers of speciﬁc types of knowledge. Interested in describing
and analysing symbolic orders in their respective historical and social context, we
point to Michel Foucault’s Archaeology of Knowledge (1981 [1961]), which provides
a helpful methodology for such research goals. In the following sections, we
will present the broad lines of his methodology and discuss them in view of visual
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Fig. 5 Picture from the event “SVP with the People” in Fribourg (Screenshot taken from the ofﬁcial
website of the national SVP on 27.10.2015)
analysis. Next, we will present considerations in regards to photography since we
primarily dealt with photographic images in our study.
How can orders of knowledge (or elements of it) be grasped? To start with,
Foucault refers to them also as discourses and gives them a quite speciﬁc meaning:
they designate groups of statements, which provide a way to represent knowledge
about a particular topic at a particular historic moment and social context (Hall
1997: p. 44). A main concern of Foucault’s deﬁnition is to overcome a purely
linguistic concept of discourse that distinguishes between what one says (language)
and what one does (practice) (ibid.). Therefore, he insists on the performative
aspect of linguistic practices, that is, their ability to constitute reality or the object
of knowledge by themselves. Viewed from this perspective, discursive practices can
produce powerful knowledge.
Foucault considers statements as the smallest units of discourses. Nevertheless,
they always appear as discursive formations, namely in speciﬁc relation to other
statements. According to Foucault, a discourse analyst strives to reconstruct formation
rules of which speciﬁc discourses derive. Knowing that analysis of statements is
the core of discourse analysis, it is interesting to note that there are several moments
in the Archaeology of knowledge where Foucault implies that any kind of signifying
practice can be potentially discursive (1981 [1961]: p. 146 ff.; 120). On the basis of
this observation, several authors have already proposed thinking of discourses as articulated
through all sorts of visual and written materials (cf. Betscher 2014; Clarke
2012; Eder and Kühschelm 2014; Fetger 2010; Hall 1997; Keller 2016; Maasen
et al. 2006; Rose 2012; Traue 2013). This reading of Foucault encouraged us to
operate with a more general comprehension of his statement concept since it allows
us to analyse visual representations as discursive practices manifesting in a visual
register. In other words: as showing conventions that regulate ways of giving to see
and make sense of things, events or persons (cf. Keller 2016).
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Fig. 6 Picture from MLP’s personal Instagram account during a visit in Cambrai with caption “meeting
with inhabitants” (Accessed on 27.10.2015)
Fig. 7 Photomontage from MLP’s personal Twitter account of a campaign meeting in Calais with caption
“room is packed” (Accessed on 14.10.2015)
However, by considering the importance Foucault gives to formation rules in his
discourse theory, “visual” statements cannot be detected by the analysis of isolated
visual documents. His methodology rather suggests identifying a series of visualisations
within a speciﬁc (e. g. institutional) visuality that are organised by speciﬁc
rules (cf. Betscher 2014; Fetger 2010; Rose 2012). In agreement with Fetger (2010:
p. 215), we also believe that the analysis of the visual regularities themselves has
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Fig. 8 Extract from the album overview with caption (picture to the left) and photo of the event “SVP
with the people” in Zurich (picture to the right) (Screenshots taken from the ofﬁcial website of the
national SVP on 27.10.2015)
Fig. 9 Picture of the event “SVP with the people” in Zurich (Screenshot taken from the ofﬁcial website
of the national SVP on 27.10.2015)
to focus on what visual representations show and evaluate as true (issues, subject
positions) as well as on how they show something (speciﬁc themes, recurring connotations,
compositional aspects, etc.). The way we proceed to reconstruct series of
visualisations that function according to speciﬁc rules within the visual web communication
of the FN and SVP will be discussed in the next section. Before that,
we want to elaborate on what distinguishes the visual from the written language and
what characterises photographs in particular. This way, the aim is to explain wherein
the discursive “potential” of photographic representations lies (ibid.: p. 211).
What characterises photographs as a speciﬁc picture type is their resemblance
to the depicted object. However, this analogy only applies to a limited extent be-
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Fig. 10 Picture of the event “SVP with the people” in Zurich (Screenshot taken from the ofﬁcial website
of the national SVP on 27.10.2015)
Fig. 11 Picture of DJ Tommy, composer of the song “Welcome to SVP”, at the event “SVP bi de Lüt” at
Zurich main station (Screenshot taken from the ofﬁcial website of the national SVP on 27.10.2015)
cause lines, forms and colours have little in common with the object they stand
for (cf. Eco cited in Fegter 2010: p. 212). Another quality associated with photographs
is their capacity to mirror reality because they can only refer to things
that were once in front of a lens (ibid.). Photographs are thus often considered to
be transparent and objective relays of external realities (Evans 2010: p. 12). As
a ﬁnal point we also want to underline their reality constituting character: contrary
to widespread opinions, photographs incorporate speciﬁc ways of seeing and are
not simply mechanical recordings because the photographer chose a view out of
an inﬁnite number of viewing possibilities or made compositional choices (Fetger
2010: p. 112). Hence, visuality is – in contrast to vision – always constructed (Foster
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Fig. 12 Picture of the event “SVP bi de Lüt” in Zurich. The caption says “Good music but even better
politics” (Screenshot taken from the ofﬁcial website of the national SVP on 27.10.2015)
Fig. 13 Picture from MLP’s personal Instagram account (Accessed on 27.10.2015)
1988: p. ix). Such constructivist considerations on photo documents tie in well with
assumptions related to discourse analysis.
As a last theoretical prerequisite, we want to introduce Roland Barthes’ idea that
visuals never express the intentions of their “authors” (cf. Barthes 1997). It is
an important theoretical premise to us because we only study visual products and
not their production processes. Furthermore, the producer’s intentions do often not
tell much about visual meanings since they may not coincide with what viewers
actually derive from them (cf. Hall 2006). In our analysis we are consequently not
seeking to disclose true communicative intentions or intended effects, but suggest
instead possible contemporary readings of the visual practices of the FN and SVP
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Fig. 14 Picture from the FN’s ﬂickr account (Accessed on 28.10.2015)
(cf. Müller 2003). At best, we make justiﬁed assumptions about media strategies or
visual choices of these two parties.
3 Methods of data collection and analysis
In line with a corpus-based approach, our data collection took place from 24 September
until 17 October 2015 (two days before the National council elections in Switzerland
and two months before the regional elections in France) and addressed all visuals
that were relevant to our research question. We started with the entire visual
production publicised on the ofﬁcial websites of the national SVP (www.svp.ch) and
FN (http://www.frontnational.com) during that period4 and looked at both parties as
discourse producers. While viewing the FN’s and SVP’s websites, we also used
an analytical grid to guide our observations with regard to their architecture and
functioning at the time of our study.5
In this context, we noticed for example hyperlinks
referring to other websites, social networking and social sharing platforms
(Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, ﬂickr). Yet, these social media platforms were always
declared as ofﬁcial communication organs of the FN, Marine Le Pen (MLP) or the
SVP by their description. In particular places, the websites of the SVP or the FN
also embedded content stemming from such external platforms (ﬁg. 2).
4 We noted that in February 2016, the FN and SVP had transformed their websites and social media
accounts. Since then, a large part of the visuals studied in this article were no longer accessible.
5 This way of proceeding was inspired by netnographic approaches of Jouët and Le Caroff (2013).
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224 E. Gimenez, N. Schwarz
Fig. 15 Picture of the event “SVP with the People” in Biel (Screenshot taken from the ofﬁcial website of
the national SVP on 27.10.2015)
In view of these cross media references, we decided to consider the social networking
and sharing sites as extensions of the ofﬁcial website and added them to
our material corpus. Since the latter consisted of hundreds of photographic images
in the end, we chose to separate our data into two analysis corpora – a “study”
and a “reference” corpus (cf. Rastier 2004) – in order to handle their abundance.
The study corpus is the corpus on which we based our analytical work. It was
made up of content from photo galleries, social networks and sharing platforms that
were publicised on the parties’ website. The reference corpus however was used for
more general observations regarding speciﬁc kind of content on the external online
platforms (e. g. videos on YouTube) or the websites in order to contrast or control
observations in our study corpus.
Most of our analytical steps were inductive (with exception of the last one)
so that empirical ﬁndings could guide the further avenues of our study. It also
allowed us to prevent bias by, for example, searching through photographic images
in order to conﬁrm what we already thought to know about them or by losing sight
of the exact status of a speciﬁc visual within the FN’s and SVP’s web visuality.
Speciﬁcally this means that we devised categories for coding7
or while reconstructing
frequent showing conventions. Furthermore, both of us worked ﬁrst on the visuals
of a speciﬁc party. The codes that emerged from our individual work were later
compared, discussed and adjusted in order to create as unambiguous categories as
possible.8
The last analytical step was, as already announced, interpretative and
dedicated to the most frequent and hence salient coding categories, uniting speciﬁc
7 Coding categories that did not emerge from the coding process itself were based on our above-mentioned
and preceding “netnographic” observations.
8 At this point we would like to mention that one author of this article is a French and the other a SwissGerman
sociologist. During data coding and interpretation, both repeatedly informed each other when
cultural knowledge was mobilised during visual interpretation.
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Fig. 16 Picture of a SVP information event in Locarno concerning the renovation of the Gotthard Tunnel
on Instagram (Accessed on 14.10.2015)
groups of visuals under one roof. Exemplary photographs of such series received
a detailed analysis consisting of formal descriptions of what the FN and the SVP is
showing us as well as an interpretative work aiming to understand what these visuals
stand for (cf. Hall 1997) and how they make sense in their immediate9
and wider
contexts. At this point, we would also like to point out that we would not take the
party ideology of the FN and SVP as reference point for visual analysis. With Dézé
(cited in Sainty 2015: p. 130), we argue that such an approach would overestimate
the knowledge of the precise party program and positions by supporters, voters or
potential viewers.
4 Empirical and analytical ﬁndings
Preliminary netnographies brought to the foreground four visual categories of persons
that we took into consideration during the analysis of our visual corpora in view
of our research interests. However, these visual categories were a lot more difﬁcult
to distinguish among the web visuals of the SVP than among the web visuals of the
FN. The category of “supporter” for example mixes with the categories of “candidates”
and “citizens” in photographs of the SVP. In the following two sections, we
9 In an article, Boullier and Crepel (2013) lay great stress on the importance of all available information
that surround a photographic image circulating on the internet (e. g. tags, likes, album descriptions etc.).
During the analysis of our visual corpora, we also gave special consideration to the different places of
publication (website and social media) as well as captions accompanying photographic images.
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Fig. 17 Photomontage exemplifying typical camera positions used by the FN and SVP
analyse photographic pictures that represent in an exemplary way salient groups of
visualisations within our study corpora. Such representative pictures were procured
cross-medially since both parties regularly re-post the same or similar visuals on
their various online platforms. Finally, it should also be said that while the SVP
website refers to ofﬁcial social media accounts of the party (ﬁg. 4), the FN’s website
refers to those of its party leader Marine Le Pen (MLP) (Twitter, Instagram) (ﬁg. 3).
This observation suggests that the FN and SVP do not grant the same space to
their party leaders within their ofﬁcial web communication. With this said, since
MLP’s social media accounts appear on the ofﬁcial FN party website, we decided
to consider them too.
4.1 The FN and SVP visualising their relations to the people
Regarding how the FN and SVP portray themselves online, we observed that most
of the time, both visualise their relations to the people. Considering that both parties
are right-wing populist, it is not surprising that the idea of proximity to the people is
a central element in their web visuality. However, we could identify different forms
of portraying proximity, be that within a speciﬁc party visuality or in comparison
to each other. The following subsections organise recurrent representations of the
parties’ relation with “the people” around three main themes: Being with the people,
Addressing the people and Representing the people.
4.1.1 The FN and SVP being with the people
In the case of the SVP, we can easily discuss the theme Being with the people through
the example of depictions of the event “SVP bi de Lüt” (Swiss German for “SVP
with the people”), an event that has been organised regularly in the past in public
spaces (ﬁg. 5). On 3 October 2015, shortly before the Swiss elections, the event
even took place in all cantons simultaneously. The ofﬁcial website of the national
SVP section provides us with well documented photo albums on this subject.
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Fig. 18 Photo “triptych” from MLP’s Twitter account (Accessed on 14.10.2015)
The FN also exhibits photographic images of meetings with the people in public
spaces. They are often accompanied by captions containing the expression “à la
rencontre de ...” (French for “meeting with”) sending a similar message (ﬁg. 6).
A closer look however reveals that the concept of “proximity” varies strongly in
the way each party visualises it. The photograph of MLP above (a visit in Cambrai)
is very exemplary for pictures that set her apart from the people, making the ﬁgure
of the leader very visible: she is easily identiﬁable due to a frequent safety distance
between her and the people. This distance is particularly illustrated by the visible
presence of bodyguards establishing a security zone around her. Furthermore, the
chosen camera angle in this type of photographs also regularly shows MLP from
the front and the inhabitants from behind.
Another photo group identiﬁed within the web visuality of the FN visualising
“distinction” shows meetings with the people in more shielded locations. Such
locations only enable encounters with supporters that are ready to travel in order to
meet the FN.
One aspect of ﬁg. 7 is to show the large number of people who attended events
in order to listen to MLP (second picture to the right). In contrast, we can see MLP
put forward as sole speaker on stage in many other pictures, as illustrated by the
exemplarily photo on the left-hand. Such visuals help to convey the impression that
the French are eager to hear the FN since it is able to gather a large number of
persons at party events.
As we have already seen, the SVP organises more random meetings with the people.
Such campaign and representational practices enhance the idea of “similarity”
because they make it difﬁcult to distinguish between different categories of persons.
Fig. 8 for example shows the SVP candidate for National Assembly Natalie Rickli
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Fig. 19 Picture on MLP’s Instagram account showing her sightseeing during her political visit in the
Czech Republic (Accessed on 27.10.2015)
Fig. 20 Picture on MLP’s Instagram account showing her getting ready for the First of May speech
(Accessed on 27.10.2015)
(blonde woman with short hair) during a “SVP bi de Lüt” event in Zurich posing
with people. Without any previous knowledge, only the caption would let us know
that there is (somewhere) a party candidate in this photo.
The fact that this picture was taken in the heart of the city of Zurich is another
important aspect of the event “SVP bi de Lüt”. Photographs taken from the same
kind of events in other cantons reveal that the SVP usually campaigns at public
meeting points of Swiss villages or cities. As a campaign strategy, this practice
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Fig. 21 Still from the clip “Welcome to SVP” on the SVP’s Instagram account (Accessed on 28.10.2015)
allows SVP candidates to get in touch with passers-by and not only with supporters.
As a showing convention, it conveys the idea of real proximity by closeness and
similarity between party representatives and citizens.
Finally, another series of photographs revealed that the “SVP bi de Lüt” event is
also characterised by (traditional) meals that are regularly served on this occasion
(ﬁgs. 9 and 10). This group of frequent pictures not only holds on photographically
how the SVP shares convivial moments with citizens/supporters but also how the
party literally feeds them. By portraying itself as a “nurturing and caring mother”,
the SVP is able to enhance the idea of paying particular attention to the wellbeing
of the Swiss people.
Another form of the SVP to show proximity with supporters/citizens is to dedramatise
and loosen up political campaign events by adding elements of entertainment
and popular culture. In this logic, we can see throughout the SVP’s online
albums (whether on the website or social media platforms) pictures of singers that
have come to give a show during public party events (ﬁg. 11).
In this context, we also identiﬁed a series of photographs that show people having
a good time with the SVP (ﬁg. 12).
On the web, visuals of the SVP showing proximity with the people is frequently
constructed through moments of entertainment and popular culture, providing the
viewer with pleasant but also familiar pictures. This is done by showing citizens
during more quotidian moments that are typically shared with friends and family
members (e. g. concerts, meals etc.). From this logic, elements of entertainment and
popular culture transfer SVP events from the political to the cultural ﬁeld.
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Fig. 22 Still from the clip “Welcome to SVP” on the SVP’s Instagram account (Accessed on 28.10.2015)
4.1.2 The FN and SVP addressing the people
During the analysis of visuals by the FN and SVP, we could identify a series of
photographs portraying proximity during speeches. Therefore, we focused on how
they distribute space to different categories of persons during such events. Differing
showing conventions can be attributed again to the distinct visual practices of the
FN and SVP.
Within the web visuality of the FN, one photograph attracted our attention particularly
(ﬁg. 13) since it is exemplary of how the FN’s visuality accords space to
different categories of persons. It was taken on the occasion of a meeting.
This photographic image shows MLP alone on a stage, in the process of giving
a speech. A banner in the background suggests a speciﬁc reading of MLP’s highlighted
position because it calls on her to save France. From the left to the right,
the second half of the photography shows a ﬁrst line of persons facing the stage and
seated in the shadow. One can assume that the persons in the ﬁrst row are deemed
to be more important since the shaded area is not open to all. We assume that these
are political representatives or local policy makers. Behind them, a line of barriers
marks the third part of the picture, a standing crowd exposed to the sun. This recurrent
way of represention reveals that space and comfort equipment are not offered
in a similar manner to each category of people, implying that politicians, policy
makers and supporters do not have the same status. We can therefore conclude that
an important number of visuals are showing distinctions between MLP and the rest
as well as between the “political class” (seated people) and supporters/citizens.
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The visual construction of “the people” and “proximity to the people” on the online platforms ... 231
Fig. 23 Still from the clip “Welcome to SVP” on the SVP’s Instagram account (Accessed on 28.10.2015)
Another element in this picture that is very exemplary of how FN visuals represent
speeches to the people is that only MLP performs this task. Furthermore, she always
occupies a heightened position that sets her apart from other people during speeches.
Hence, group pictures are very rare and if the president of the FN is sharing the
stage with other party members, she is still separated and distinguished from the
rest (ﬁg. 14).
A totally different situation can be found in pictures of public SVP speeches.
SVP candidates or leaders are frequently presented collectively and in a real spatial
proximity to a potential electorate. As ﬁg. 15 shows, party representatives and
citizens are situated at the same level. The orator is even placed between his/her
party colleagues and the citizens/supporters as listeners.
We can also see that the listeners are seated on benches and that the spatial
positioning of the benches does not oblige them to be fully turned towards the
SVP candidates and the speaker. The listeners can continue talking with their table
partners if desired.
Fig. 16 has a high resemblance with FN visuals and shows SVP representatives
speaking to a big audience. However, it does not emphasize the orator but instead
the audience in the hall.
Finally, we would like to elaborate on the ways visuals of both parties frequently
position the viewer. Our photomontage (ﬁg. 17) exempliﬁes typical camera posi-
tions.
In the case of the FN (left-hand picture), the viewer is often offered a point of
observation external to the depicted event. This type of picture places the viewer
outside the unfolding scene. Thus, the viewer of the photography can observe the
party president as well as the supporters making up the crowd. In contrast, the SVP
offers pictures (such as the picture to the right) in which the viewer is part of the
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232 E. Gimenez, N. Schwarz
Fig. 24 Still from the clip “Welcome to SVP” on the SVP’s Instagram account (Accessed on 28.10.2015)
Fig. 25 Picture of SVP representatives during the event “SVP bi de Lüt” at Zurich main station
(Screenshot taken from the ofﬁcial website of the national SVP on 27.10.2015)
scene and able to place him-/herself in the position of the supporters (looking at
political representatives) or the party representatives (looking at the supporters).
These perspectives with focus on the audience reveal another important aspect:
the way the orator is supposed to be listened to. In FN visuals, listening is represented
as a unilateral process. We often see MLP speaking and the supporters
listening within spatial arrangements that orient them towards MLP. Consequently,
she seems to have the full attention of the audience on the pictures. In contrast, pho-
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The visual construction of “the people” and “proximity to the people” on the online platforms ... 233
Fig. 26 Photo of an Assembly of Delegates posted on Instagram (Accessed on 28.10.2015)
tographic images of the SVP suggest a way of listening that may be characterised
as less authoritarian. As viewers, we are in the middle of a seated crowd listening to
the speeches of SVP representatives but we are also able to observe other supporters
talking with each other. And again, this is due to the spatial arrangements.
4.1.3 The FN and SVP representing the people
How do the FN and SVP visuals show party leaders/members in their respective
roles? In this regard, distinct but recurrent photographs were publicised online by
the FN and SVP at the time of our study. In the case of the FN, we can ﬁnd several
photo series that depict MLP in various situations of her political or personal life.
We start by showing conventions that portray the political life of MLP.
Fig. 18 shows a photomontage that was posted on MLP’s Twitter account. Its
individual pictures are at the same time exemplary of several visuals on the online
platforms of the FN and MLP. The ﬁrst one shows portraits or full-body pictures of
MLP during appearances in the media, press conferences, party or political meetings
etc. It contrasts with visual practices regarding the audiences she is addressing (top
left picture): it mainly portrays listeners as a passive crowd and rarely in motion. In
turn, the picture down on the right of the photographic triptych shows how the FN
typically illustrates the relationship between the party president and supporters: far
from the online imagery of the SVP, which rather depicts close proximity through
similarity between all visual categories, MLP is shown as a star giving autographs.
There is another series of photographs on the online platforms of the FN that
contributes to MLP’s “stariﬁcation” depicting moments of her personal life. In
fact, these pictures are always somehow connected to her political work as captions
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234 E. Gimenez, N. Schwarz
Fig. 27 Campaign poster of the
SVP “Implementation Initiative”
reusing the controversial theme
of the black sheep of the Deportation
Initiative (Screenshot
taken from the ofﬁcial website of
the national SVP on 4.2.2016)
Fig. 28 FN leaﬂet on Facebook criticising issues of immigration and other political parties (Accessed on
28.10.2015)
reveal. In this logic, many photos depict MLP sightseeing within the framework of
her political visits (ﬁg. 19).
On Twitter and Instagram, we encountered other frequent pictures supporting the
impression that the FN uses social media primarily to give users a sneak peek behind
the scenes of the party’s life, embodied by the ﬁgure of MLP10
(ﬁg. 20).
As we have already pointed out, a picture type of the SVP puts forward the
collective dimension of political life. In this logic, moments of expression are rarely
10 We did not push our analysis of the leader ﬁgure of MLP further. Boudillon (2005) and Achin et al.
(2008) did this work.
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The visual construction of “the people” and “proximity to the people” on the online platforms ... 235
Fig. 29 Picture of SVP candidate posing with winemakers in traditional clothing at the market of Vevey
(Screenshot taken from the ofﬁcial website of the national SVP on 27.10.2015)
Fig. 30 Picture of a parade of “Trychler” on the SVP Facebook account (Accessed on 04.02.2016)
individual and tend to reduce or even suppress distinctions between representatives
and citizens/supporters. In fact, some SVP visuals go even further by suggesting
representations of self-mockery. We could ﬁnd them in stills of SVP candidates
from the campaign clip “Welcome to SVP”11
and pictures that include mascot Willy,
a Bernese mountain plush dog that was presented in 2014 to the Swiss via mass
media.
In September 2015, the SVP released a song clip via YouTube during its election
campaign. On the party’s Instagram account, we found stills from that clip where
party representatives are represented with a quirky sense of humour. Therein we can
see the Federal Councillor Ueli Maurer (SVP) riding a bicycle and playing with toy
planes (at that time he was the head of the Federal Department of Defence, Civil
Protection and Sports) (ﬁg. 21); Adrian Amstutz (member of the National Council)
11 For the clip see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ysYg6sWD8B4 (accessed on 30.10.2015).
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236 E. Gimenez, N. Schwarz
Fig. 31 Picture from a Facebook-album apropos the SVP commemoration event “20-year anniversary of
the EEA/EU-No-vote” in 2012 (Accessed on 14.10.2015)
in front of a plane with parachute equipment (ﬁg. 22); Natalie Rickli (candidate
for National Assembly) sitting in front of the TV (ﬁg. 23); and the president of
the national SVP section Toni Brunner having a picnic with his combat cow Taifun
(ﬁg. 24).
In this series of photographs, the role of the leader is humorously mocked. Also,
these clip stills differ a lot from pictures that show political representatives in their
representative roles usually more seriously and distanced.
The second group of photographs that show party candidates campaigning for
their (re)election into a representative function involve Willy the mascot. It is interesting
to note that in this series of photographs, Willy has three distinctive functions.
As a mascot, he represents the SVP. As a watchdog he embodies a protector. Furthermore,
Willy is given the place that normally belongs to MLP in the FN visuality:
in a lot of pictures of SVP events the mascot appears in front of the candidates. This
visual practice can be explained by the fact that the SVP did not have a strong
candidate for the elections of 2015 as the party did with Christoph Blocher during
other elections. These three characteristic of Willy become obvious in ﬁg. 25.
As we have stated with the FN, its social media visuals regularly offer sneak
peeks behind the scene of MLP’s political life. The SVP also makes party activities
transparent by photographing them. However, pictures of this kind are neither about
following representatives during their political work nor showing backstage scenes
prior to important political events.12
Instead, they provide access into the heart of the
party by usually depicting moments of collective decision-making during Assemblies
12 At an Assembly of delegates, delegates decide on suggestions regarding federal voting objects, launch
popular initiatives or elect party presidents, new members etc.
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The visual construction of “the people” and “proximity to the people” on the online platforms ... 237
Fig. 32 Picture of a trip of the parliamentary group to Central Switzerland on Twitter (Accessed on
14.10.2015)
of delegates (ﬁg. 26). Such pictures recall scenes of the Landsgemeinde13
as the
oldest and simplest form of direct democracy in Switzerland.
Finally, it could be quite useful to analyse “proximity to the people” as a characteristic
of populism through the continuum from “distinction” to “similarity”.
Concerning this, the examples of the FN and SVP are very interesting since their
online visuals show proximity in this way very distinctly. Nevertheless, we assume
that other populist parties may publicise visualisations of proximity that are rather
situated between these two extremes.
4.2 The FN and SVP depicting the people
Right-wing populist parties usually tend to deﬁne national identity by a process of
negation, that is, by deﬁning what creates a threat (immigration) or what has to be
condemned (a corrupt elite). Consequently, identity is determined by what is not
a feature of an afﬁrmed identity or “the good people” (cf. Taguieff 2012). Figs. 27
and 28 exemplify these ideas.
In this regard, the visual online corpora on which we worked were very interesting
since they took such typical right-wing populist communication/representation
processes against current trends. As a matter of fact, the FN and SVP signiﬁed
identity in positive terms on the visuals we analysed. In this section we shall study
the manner both parties represent constructions of afﬁrmed identity.
13 Landsgemeinden are cantonal assemblies that have been abolished in all but two cantons. During Landsgemeinden
voting is accomplished by those in favour of a motion raising their hands.
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238 E. Gimenez, N. Schwarz
Fig. 33 Picture of a trip of the parliamentary group to Central Switzerland on Twitter (Accessed on
14.10.2015)
Looking at the material, we see ﬁrstly that both parties visualise “the people”.
But in the case of the FN, visualisations of “the people” rather serve to assert a party
identity that represents the FN as being able to lead France. This partly explains
why the FN portrays citizens in crowds that travel to meetings with the FN in order
to show that the party has many supporters. As a consequence of this visual practice,
“the people” form a more anonymous mass of citizens. As regards the SVP, we have
access to representations of “the people” that appear less abstract. Largely for this
reason, the focus of our analysis here is mostly on the SVP because unlike the FN,
the party not only seems to deﬁne a party identity but also a genuine Swiss identity
and hence the “we-group”:
We could ﬁnd several series of photographs that exhibit traditional references
(ﬁgs. 29 and 30). That is because several SVP events draw on Swiss folklore. In
this way, showing conventions of this kind not only convey the impression that
traditions are important to the party but that the party’s deﬁnition of Swiss identity
puts forward local and regional particularities. Consequently, the visual practices of
the SVP also put in concrete terms representations of Swissness.
Such Photographic picture groups also show that events organised by the SVP
are not only occasions in which local traditions are revived but also rendered visible
in public meeting points such as market places.
Since SVP visuals frequently show an image of Switzerland marked by traditions,
the party’s deﬁnition of identity also mainly draws on traditions as references to
the past. The album “Der Weg der Schweiz in die Zukunft” (German for “The
Swiss path to the future”) on the SVP Facebook page conﬁrms this observation: it
shows pictures from a public event commemorating the 20-year anniversary of the
“EEA/EU-No”-vote by the Swiss in 6 December 1992 (ﬁg. 31). The title of the
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The visual construction of “the people” and “proximity to the people” on the online platforms ... 239
Fig. 34 Picture of a trip of the parliamentary group to Central Switzerland on Twitter (Accessed on
14.10.2015)
photo album illustrates very well the valorisation of the past and hence conservative
value attitudes.
Furthermore, we could observe that party internal events, and not only public SVP
events as explained above, also portray “the people” and in a similar way. There
again, we found visualisations of tradition. The repetitive use of traditional elements
is sometimes also accompanied by a work of memory. For example, Swissness is
deﬁned by references to the past during SVP events, mostly by referring to historical
moments addressing Switzerland’s independence as well as a continuous rejection
of its Europeanisation. Such pictures invite us to assume that internal party events
also serve as moments to make SVP representatives familiar with speciﬁc ideas of
Swiss identity. This ties in with observations in connection with representations of
proximity and similarity between political representatives and citizens, signifying
that SVP representatives not only are there for the people but that they also constitute
the people.
The ﬁgs. 32, 33 and 34 show a trip to Central Switzerland, where a reproduction
of the Battle of Morgarten (one of many battles between the Habsburgs and the old
confederates) was shown to the parliamentary group of the SVP. Moreover, the play
is linking Switzerland’s battle with the Habsburgs with a “contemporary battle”, in
which, according to the SVP, Switzerland is confronted with the European Union
(second picture). This reinterpretation and metaphoric use of the historic battle
of Morgarten resonates well with the party’s campaign slogan for the elections of
2015 “Frei bleiben”/“Rester libre” (Remain free), calling for independence from the
European Union.
Finally, picture series of historical inspiration do not just signify the rejection of
the European Union by the Swiss, but also produce representations of Swiss identity
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240 E. Gimenez, N. Schwarz
that exclude newly arrived citizens since it particularly values “descendants” of the
old confederates. In addition, and this was also observed in the visuals of the
FN, SVP portrayals of “the people” mainly show white people. As a consequence,
Switzerland’s contemporary multiculturalism is made invisible and whiteness is
evaluated as a “true” characteristic of the Swiss people.
5 Conclusion
In this study, we chose to focus on visuals that were available on online platforms
of the FN and SVP and which allowed us to observe how these parties make use of
online platforms as places of self-representation and representation of the country.
Thereby, we could not only observe recurrent visual practices (and hence discourse
statements) in terms of themes such as “the people” and “proximity to the people”,
but also differences in the way these themes were represented on the web visuals
of each party. The differences can be understood by Switzerland’s and France’s
differing political systems. We assume for example that Switzerland’s federalist
or particular government system (made up of seven federal councillors) as well as
France’s presidential system inﬂuence the place that is given to individual party
representatives and party leaders at events/on pictures as well as on how the visual
category of “the people” is depicted. Visual practices putting forward distinction
(typically for FN visuality) and similarity (typically for SVP visuality) between
different visual categories probably echo with Switzerland’s militia-based political
system and France’s professionalised political culture. In turn, direct democracy
might have an effect on the way the FN and SVP address “internal party life”
through their visuals. This last theme constitutes further a visual speciﬁcity we
mostly found on social media platforms of both parties and less on their websites.
It works transparency by expanding spaces of the political that are accessible for
supporters and all interested citizens. Finally, it can also be argued that showing
conventions of the FN and SVP in terms of their relation to the people mainly frame
the FN as a party for the people (a party standing up for the people) and the SVP
as a party of the people (a party composed of the people).
To sum up, this research contributes to the study of populism by showing how
central features of populist ideology (“the people” and “proximity to the people”)
can ﬁnd very distinct visual expressions. Another major contribution of this work
lies in observing spaces for visibility that were little explored up to now as well
as in revealing differences with visual content of other communication channels of
the FN and SVP. The analysis of posters for popular initiatives launched by the
SVP for example revealed that on that media support, the party puts forward themes
of anti-identity and threat using a graphic style (see, e. g. Dézé and Girod 2006).
This is (almost) not the case in the visuals the SVP puts online. In that regard, it
would be interesting to extend this study by a comparative approach apropos visual
online practices of different political parties in the same country in order to point
out visualisations that are typical for populism, for right-wing or left-wing populist
parties or for a speciﬁc political context. In addition, undertaking this comparison
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The visual construction of “the people” and “proximity to the people” on the online platforms ... 241
between visual practices that are used in conjunction with different communication
supports and platforms of a same party could offer further insight.
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Elsa Gimenez Graduate Assistant, since 2013 PhD under joint supervision at the Universities of Lausanne
(CH) and Paris Vincennes Saint-Denis (FR). 2012 MA in Sociology at the Mirail University of Toulouse
(FR). 2012–2013 Coordinator of Comunitic (community of researchers studying uses of information and
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(CH) and Augsburg (D). 2009 MA in Social Sciences at the University of Fribourg (CH). 2009–2010
Scientiﬁc Project Collaborator at the Military Academy at the ETH Zurich (CH). 2011Visiting Scholar at
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