Le national suisse

Title: Le national suisse

Canton: Neuchâtel

Available online: 1 July 1856 - 30 September 1920 (17,527 issues, 76,976 pages)

Bibliografic information (Helveticat): http://permalink.snl.ch/bib/sz001724149

Rights: private use

Segmentation level: article level

Description: Following the Républicain neuchâtelois (1848-1853), Le National suisse was founded on 1 July 1856 in La Chaux-de-Fonds. At that time, it was published three times a week. The radical newspaper was initially seen as the organ of the inhabitants of La Chaux-de-Fonds and their economic interests. So much so that it could almost be described, until the 1870s, as the mouthpiece of the economic circles of the Jura Arc, before it became that of the Neuchâtel and Swiss radicals. A daily newspaper from July 1870, doubling its size in 1875, Le National Suisse gradually became a newspaper with a national readership, linking its destiny to the development of democracy and the watchmaking industry. The newspaper was involved in all the political, ideological and economic battles that punctuated the second half of the 19th century: in favour of the revision of the Constitution from 1872 onwards, as a proponent of the Kulturkampf, as an attentive observer of economic and industrial developments when the watchmaking industry was undergoing profound changes, and becoming, at the turn of the century, the organ of a particular social conservatism. In the eyes of its opponents, it appears as the quintessential state institution. It is a reflection of the employers' associations and the radical state. Most of its readers belong to the bourgeoisie. In 1920, following its merger with L'Union helvétique (1918-1920), it became L'Effort (1920-1982).