SP national councilor Mustafa Atici: the kebab pioneer who wants to become a federal councilor

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When FC Basel equalized 2-2 in the 96th minute on Sunday afternoon, the day was saved for Mustafa Atici (53). The beer is flowing, business is flourishing – partly thanks to the nice weather. Unlike kebab demand, which can be planned relatively easily, beer consumption depends entirely on how the team runs on the field. “If FCB is ahead, we sell a lot more – and there are fewer complaints,” says Atici.

Mustafa Atici has been selling kebabs at Joggeli since the stadium opened in 2001. The Kurdish resident has been active in the SP for just as long. First in the SP district association, then as a grand councilor and vice-president of the canton party for a long time, Atici made the jump to the National Council in 2019 – on the fourth attempt. While migrants are significantly underrepresented in politics across Switzerland, the small canton of Basel-Stadt currently has two national councilors, Atici and Sibel Arslan (43) of the Green Party, who were born and raised in Turkey.

Candidacy with ulterior motives

And now kebab entrepreneur Atici wants to become a federal councilor. The SP National Council was the first to throw its hat into the ring after Alain Berset (51) announced his resignation. He justified his rise by saying that it was time for a federal councilor with a migrant background.

Atici is realistic enough to know that he enters the race as an absolute outsider. He makes no secret of the fact that he launched his candidacy to get attention for his concerns – this is not only about the political participation of migrants, but especially about education policy. And of course, Atici hopes that his candidacy will help him get re-elected to the National Council. The Basel SP must tremble because the canton of Basel-Stadt has to give up one of its five seats in the National Council to Zurich due to its shrinking population.

The hated victim role

FCB fan Atici – whose wife and two sons (18 and 23) also work at the stadium on match days – does not have to worry about the threat of being voted out on this bright football Sunday. The emphasis on the negative is disgusting anyway. This is especially true when it comes to his experiences as a migrant. He hates “playing the role of victim,” Atici says. A sentence that everyone who talks to him about his migration story hears.

Atici did not speak a word of German when he came to Basel to study as a 23-year-old in the early 1990s, where several of his eight brothers and sisters already lived. He studied economics and then added a master’s degree in European studies.

The original plan to return to Turkey after my studies for an academic career was quickly forgotten. Instead, he opened Basel’s first kebab shop in 1996. A trip to London, where he saw such shops, gave Atici the idea. Today he is not only the operator of several snack stands in the Basel football stadium, but also a consultant for a food wholesaler.

Atici’s professional and political career shows perseverance and hard work. He wants to achieve something. Not only for himself, but especially for those who have had fewer opportunities in life than him. And he also expects this attitude of taking fate into his own hands from other migrants.

“We should not only support migrants, we should also challenge them,” he says. They themselves are partly responsible for the fact that there are so few people with a migrant background in politics. “We have to participate!”

Source:Blick