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What we know: On December 13, the United Federal Assembly will elect a successor to the retiring SP federal councilor Alain Berset (51). Everything else: Currently fully open. Rarely has a starting situation been more exciting.
Five men and one woman are standing as candidates for the SP. And in a sideshow, a brave Green man prepares to detonate the magic formula. But more about that later.
Things will get serious from Monday
Tomorrow, Monday, starts a week of truth for the social democrats. Your candidates will go on a promotional trip through Switzerland in their own name: Daniel Jositsch (58), Beat Jans (59), Matthias Aebischer (56), Jon Pult (39), Roger Nordmann (50) and Evi Allemann (45) stand for public. The first hearing takes place at the canton festival in Geneva, then it goes to Schaffhausen via Biel BE and Olten SO. If you pull off a good trap on this show, you might increase your chances of a nomination. Crucial, however, will be what happens behind the scenes.
Who will convince the SP base? And more importantly: who is the SP faction? No one lets anyone look at the cards of this Federal Bernese House of Cards anymore. One must first wait for the hearings; the language seems to be that all candidates (including the female candidate) clearly have what it takes to be a federal councillor. In just over three weeks, on November 25, the faction will decide who can be on the ticket.
Yet some things are already finding their way to the public. Among the Bernese arcades, parliamentarians are said to have suddenly gained new followers with government ambitions on their Instagram accounts in recent weeks. Or that certain candidates sent striking congratulations to the new members of the SP faction after the federal elections at the end of October.
It is also no secret that Zurich State Councilor Daniel Jositsch still favors a three-way ticket. Since he took office last winter, when it came to the successor of SP magistrate Simonetta Sommaruga (63), many Social Democrats have considered him unelectable.
Should Jositsch tremble?
If Evi Allemann is the only woman and one of the two favorites Beat Jans or Jon Pult ends up on the ticket, Jositsch certainly needs this third place. He and his group know that if this happens, Jositsch, who enjoys much sympathy among citizens, is as good as elected. We want to prevent this scenario. An SP Land Council member says behind closed doors: “Jositsch has no chance.”
A few weeks ago, the Juso wing in parliament made it clear that it was now the young people’s turn. This increases the chances of Jon Pult and Evi Allemann for one of the coveted places on the ticket. Since the elections, the SP faction has become younger and more female. The problem: the next SP federal council member will be elected by a parliament in which more older men are in charge. A representative of the FDP puts it this way: “So that the SP remains the party of equality, we elect a man to the side of SP federal councilor Elisabeth Baume-Schneider (59).” If you want to get the SP ticket, you have to master the balancing act: scoring points among young and old.
The best candidate must follow in Berset’s footsteps, says a member of the SP leadership. Origin plays a subordinate role. The fact that Albert Rösti, a Bernese, is already represented in the Federal Council should not be a disadvantage for Allemann and Aebischer. And Jans does not automatically belong on the ticket because the residents of Basel owe something after Eva Herzog (61) was not elected last December.
Language doesn’t matter
According to this logic, the Röstigraben should not play a role either. The path to the ticket would be clear for Roger Nordmann, the secret favorite in this race. The Roman, who speaks perfect German, knows how to forge alliances in parliament. He is considered extremely smart and well versed in politics. Nordmann’s competence is also his Achilles heel: political opponents generally have little interest in a strong Federal Council.
Everything is open. The question is also how the SP will behave in the re-election of Foreign Minister Ignazio Cassis. The seat of the FDP’s Federal Council is under attack by the Greens. A ‘mission impossible’, everyone actually agrees. Yet Freiburg councilor and entrepreneur Gerhard Andrey (47) is anything but a joke candidate.
But for the Social Democrats, supporting the Greens would be a hot potato. Even if it is called a general renewal election, current voters generally have nothing to fear. If this does happen, there is a risk of a chaotic morning in the National Council Chamber. At the end, the two SP seats are awarded. If the SP were to participate in the attempted coup against Cassis, there could be retaliation.
Does the SP want to take this risk? We’ll know more in a few weeks.
Source:Blick
I am Liam Livingstone and I work in a news website. My main job is to write articles for the 24 Instant News. My specialty is covering politics and current affairs, which I’m passionate about. I have worked in this field for more than 5 years now and it’s been an amazing journey. With each passing day, my knowledge increases as well as my experience of the world we live in today.
