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Moderator Flavia Wasserfallen (44) wanted to know from Daniel Jositsch (58) what adjectives his friends would use to describe him. “Do I even have any friends?” the Zurich State Councilor replied self-ironically – and received the first laugh of the evening.
Overall it was fun back and forth in Biel BE, the second stop on the SP Roadshow, which ends in Schaffhausen on Tuesday. Roger Nordmann (50) also had better punchlines than his suit. When asked about the adjectives of his friends, the Roman replied: “Annoyance.” When Wasserfallen pointed out that it was a noun, Nordmann corrected himself: “Annoying.”
Bieler SP Stapi Erich Fehr (55) shouted at the start of the event in the well-filled hall that he was looking forward to a passionate debate. However, his attempt to arouse the fighting spirit of the five men and their female competitor, who want to sit in the Federal Council for the Social Democrats, failed: it remained an evening among friends. Only at the end did it briefly become toxic.
Then what we actually wanted to avoid happened. To avoid personal attacks in the audience’s questions, Flavia Wasserfallen relied on the principle of chance. She asked the visitors innocent questions and then took out of a bag the name of the candidate she had to answer: what do you think about the army, neutrality, the climate, the pandemic?
Wounds that have not yet healed
This went well until of all people only the name Daniel Jositsch remained. Then a woman promptly delivered a low blow: “Your chances of being nominated by the parliamentary group for the Federal Council ticket are slim. At what point will they announce they are not running for office?”
There it was again, that one story that Jositsch hasn’t been able to get out of his head for a year. He is still indignant about entering the race last December, when the United Federal Assembly decided on Simonetta Sommaruga’s successor, even though the parliamentary group had explicitly intended that only one woman would do so. Also tonight in Biel. And some attendees were probably wondering how many more ashes this man had to put on his head.
“We’ll see what my chances are,” Jositsch said stoically into the microphone. Just like then, he will of course accept the group’s decision. Fortunately, the aperitif followed.
Second chance
Priska Seiler Graf (55) only followed the events from a distance. The Zurich national councilor is one of Jositsch’s supporters. And she is annoyed that even many party members cannot let go of the issue. “The SP gives everyone a second chance, but that does not seem to be the case with its own candidate.”
Jositsch, who has been doing “great work” for sixteen years, has apologized several times on all channels, says Seiler Graf. He explained it to himself and assured that he would not make the same mistake again. “At some point enough is enough.” She has no illusions: “It will be very difficult for Jositsch to get a place on the ticket for the Federal Council.” Two or three years ago it looked different: “Jositsch was undisputed.”
In large parts of the SP he still is. Seiler Graf, co-party chairman of Zurich, reports many phone calls these days in which party members seem irritated by what is happening in the SP faction.
When it came to nominating him as a candidate to succeed Alain Berset (51), Jositsch de Juso had him quizzed with questions for over an hour – and he didn’t blink an eye. This earned him great respect from the delegates, who placed overwhelming confidence in him. At the end of October, he was confirmed as a member of the Council of States in the elections in Zurich, with a brilliant result.
Whether Jositsch gets the ticket does not depend on the public hearings. Priska Seiler Graf is convinced that the roadshow has little influence on this. However, the base appreciated the direct contact with the candidates. The tour was planned for tactical reasons anyway. The fact that we have stopped in the cantons of Geneva and Bern has to do with the second round of elections for the Council of States. In Geneva, Carlo Sommaruga (64) is fighting for his seat in Stöckli. And an exciting race is also expected in Bern. Because Flavia Wasserfallen had already passed the first vote, she could fully concentrate on her role as moderator in Biel.
Jositsch Serene
The day after the mini-scandal in Biel, Jositsch was conciliatory towards SonntagsBlick. The fact that he was asked the same question again and again after his solo run last year mainly has to do with the media: “What’s in the newspaper just sticks in people’s minds.” As a candidate for the Federal Council, this does not matter to him. “Anyone who exposes themselves must be able to tolerate that.”
His problem is different: the five excellent candidates he is up against. “There are much more sensible reasons not to put me on the ticket than this story from the past.”
Daniel Jositsch is not thinking about giving up just yet. That has to do with his character. For the sake of completeness, it should be mentioned here how the Zurich resident answered the opening question in Biel. His friends, who do exist, describe him as: “Loyal, social – and sometimes a bit stubborn.”
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.
