SP man waives running again: Biel mayor Erich Fehr will resign at the end of 2024

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The chairman of the city of Biel, Erich Fehr (SP), will not seek re-election in September 2024. Fehr announced this to the media in Biel on Tuesday. With the announcement, he wanted to ensure clear conditions at an early stage, the 54-year-old said at a point de press. This would give parties sufficient time to select suitable candidates.

Fehr has been a full-time mayor since 2011. He feels healthy and does his job with great pleasure and enthusiasm, he assured. But 14 years is a long time. “I am convinced that the right time has come to put the responsibility in new hands.”

Fehr assumes that he will leave the political scene at the end of 2024. “After the city council, I no longer have any political prospects,” he said in an interview with Biel’s online news portal Ajour.ch. This was also evident from his defeat in the 2022 elections for the governing council in Bern.

As a white Swiss German of his age, he simply does not have the profile that is in demand. “I wouldn’t even be elected to the National Council on an SP list.”

Fehr has not disclosed what he plans to do in the future. “Soon I will be taking on a small office that I can hold as mayor, but which I would also like to hold.”

City government since 2009

Erich Fehr has been active in Biel city politics since 1993. He made it to the city council in 2009. Two years later he succeeded his fellow party member Hans Stöckli as city chairman.

During Fehr’s tenure, the construction of the Tissot Arena, the location of the Innovation Park and the decision of the Bernese Grand Council to build the Technology Campus of the Bern University of Applied Sciences at Biel railway station took place.

His tenure was also shaped by the controversy surrounding the western branch of the A5. The city council and Fehr itself have been campaigning for years: the city and the entire conurbation will benefit from the highway bypass.

After growing protests from the population, Fehr came to the conclusion in August 2020 that the project in this form “could not be pushed through in any way”. At the end of 2020, the plans disappeared in the drawer. Since then, new approaches have been sought to solve the traffic problems.

Erich Fehr was born into politics. His father Hermann Fehr was also mayor of Biel for the SP from 1977 to 1990, he was also a member of the National Council and a member of the cantonal government from 1990 to 1997. Erich Fehr also ran for the Council of Government of Bern in 2022, but only took eighth place. (SDA)

Source:Blick