After the fire in Crans-Montana, it is suddenly no longer about the victims, but about alleged “Valaisian fraud”. Felony, fatalism, nepotism: Alpine researcher Boris Previšić explains why Valais is becoming a whipping boy – and why Switzerland is primarily using it to distract attention from its own failings.
January 15, 2026, 10:10 p.mJanuary 15, 2026, 10:10 p.m
Léonie Hagen / ch media
Two weeks after the fire disaster in Crans-Montana, Switzerland is talking less about the victims than about Valais. About nepotism and “Valaisianism”, which even former Federal Councilor Micheline Calmy-Rey, who herself grew up in Valais, criticized. Boris Previšić, you have been researching self-images and images of others in the Alpine region and Europe for decades. How do you classify such allegations?
Boris Previšić: I was surprised by this statement. I would have expected, first and foremost, national solidarity with the victims from a former SP Federal Councilor. This accusation of “Valaisianism” is based on prejudice.
Switzerland defines itself through its mountains – and yet sets itself apart from the clichéd Valais. Why?Image: Jennifer Zimmermann
The authorities themselves admit that they did not adequately control fire protection. Can one really deny any “cronyism” in Valais?
Of course there are. This has to do with the Alpine small area and the history of the Valais. The more peripheral a region is, the less competition there is and the more people stay to themselves. You have to rely on entrepreneurship that takes certain risks, such as strong seasonal fluctuations. People also tend to talk to each other once in a while. But this is not a unique Valais phenomenon. Just think of the construction felt in the canton of Graubünden.
Valais is the most backward canton in Switzerland in terms of economic history, says Alpine researcher and cultural historian Boris Previšić.Image: University of Lucerne
And yet the clichés surrounding narrow, tangled Valais persist. Why?
In terms of area, Valais is one of the largest cantons in Switzerland. Uri may have a comparable mountain population, but the canton is significantly smaller and lies on the north-south axis of Switzerland and is essentially a transit canton. In addition, Valais still represents a certain cultural unity today and therefore a good projection surface for the rest of Switzerland.
Its history and bilingualism divide the canton into two parts.
Beyond its linguistic borders, Valais is one thing above all: Catholic. The entire canton is a diocese, namely Sitten. This gives it a cultural coherence that has been repeatedly reactivated as its own image since the Sonderbund War in 1847. Things are different in the canton of Graubünden: it is much more diverse not only linguistically but also religiously and cannot be so easily understood as a unit.
A view of the Matterhorn in Valais.Image: KEYSTONE
Hasn’t the church also lost its importance in Valais?
Catholicism still left its mark on Valais. Even if you no longer describe yourself as religious, a certain fatalism can be observed. If something bad happens, that’s just how it was supposed to be. Because a higher power – be it God, be it the mountain – decided on it. Then suddenly no one is responsible for anything.
What does this Valais fatalism have to do with Switzerland?
The real turning point in Swiss self-definition came after the First World War, which almost tore Switzerland apart, with the spiritual national defense of the 1930s, when Switzerland began to define itself through the Alps. The so-called Homo Alpinus was elevated to the status of true original Swiss: the mountain man, influenced by alpine farming, who can withstand the harsh nature, but is also at the mercy of it. The Uri, the Grisons, the Valais.
Why did Valais become such a projection surface?
In addition to religious unity and national exaltation, a third factor is crucial: economic delay. At the end of the 19th century, Valais was still heavily influenced by agriculture. Compared to other Alpine regions such as the Bernese Oberland or the Engadine, tourism only really took off more than half a century later.
The Oeschinensee in the Bernese Oberland.Image: www.bls.ch
To this end, Valais was later massively industrialized.
This also happened very delayed. There was already an industry in the mountain cantons of Glarus and St. Gallen in the early 19th century. In Valais this only followed with the availability of white coal, electricity from the Grande Dixence and similar record-breaking buildings in the 1960s. Ten years later, de-industrialization and the expansion of the service sector began in large parts of Switzerland. From an economic historical perspective, Valais is the most backward canton in Switzerland.
An image that is still actively used today – from both sides.
It’s interesting how these clichés are played out themselves. It’s an interplay: If I, as a Valais native, hear a hundred times that Valais is one way and no other, then I begin to adopt these foreign images. At some point it no longer matters whether it is what the people from outside Switzerland say or what the people of Valais say about themselves.
The successful series “Tschugger” plays with exactly this. Why does this exoticism sell so well?
In this way we can say to ourselves and others: Look, we Swiss are not just curt control freaks and tinkerers. We also carry this other side within us. You externalize the wild and rebellious, the disreputable and fatalistic to such an extent that you can identify with it, but also distance yourself from it if necessary…
Bax and Juni from the series “Tschugger”.Image: SRF/Dominic Steinmann
… when disaster strikes.
As soon as the mountain, the debris flow, the avalanche or the flashover comes, the external and self-image of the exotic, of which one is a bit proud, tips over into the stereotype with which one no longer wants to have anything to do: the Valais and their “Valaisians”. Ultimately, these are social-psychological projections. If the Swiss self-image requires us to cliché a region in this way, we must ask ourselves: How can this be generalized for Switzerland?
What do you mean?
We project onto others what we don’t want to see in ourselves.
Specifically: The gaps in fire protection at the federal level.
The Swiss know full well that these gaps exist. We have collectively come to the conclusion that the typical combination of official sloppiness and mafia involvement is responsible for the catastrophe – which cannot be denied in Crans-Montana. At the same time, we know that in the rest of Switzerland inspections are carried out much less frequently. Valais is Switzerland’s guilty conscience.
What are the consequences?
We don’t talk about what caused such an accident to happen in the first place. From the economic conditions of the periphery, the enormous financial pressure to make every last effort in the short high season in winter in order to survive the rest of the year. Combined with the general tendency of the last four decades to privatize responsibility, this is fatal.
Was it really different before?
Let’s still remember the indoor swimming pool accident in Uster in 1985. The concrete ceiling that hung under a flat roof collapsed onto the swimming pool. The retaining brackets made of chrome-nickel steel were thought to be rust-free – which, as it turned out, is not the case when the air contains chlorine. It was a national tragedy. And no one said that this misfortune was due to the peculiarities of the Zurich Oberlanders. Instead, certain materials were banned and controls became stricter.
At the end of May 2025, a rockslide occurred in the Valais community of Blatten.Image: keystone
At the same time, expressions of solidarity and critical questions are already increasing throughout Switzerland about how fire protection is handled in their own region.
More controls, more protection, compensation even before the question of guilt has been clarified: all of this costs money. I’m not sure whether Swiss politicians are ready to bear these costs.
What speaks against it?
Let’s take Blatten as an example, where the early warning systems were central to ensuring that there were hardly any deaths. At the same time, geological monitoring in the mountains is to be reduced with the upcoming austerity package. Last year’s Federal President’s answer was that it was the austerity pressure that was affecting all areas. As if the only Swiss natural law was the debt brake.
That sounds very fatalistic – like the attitude that the whole of Switzerland is now accusing the Valais of.
It’s not “Valaisianism”, but rather a diversionary tactic. Because now the time has come for politicians to take responsibility. Actually, we as Switzerland, not just as Valais, should now stand before the victims of the fire disaster and their relatives and explain how we can provide them with comprehensive help and protect them in the future. No matter who is legally responsible for what or not. (aargauerzeitung.ch)
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