The Green Liberals’ political laboratory must tighten its belt: the GLP flagship project can no longer pay wages

class=”sc-29f61514-0 fwWrRV”>

The Green Liberals’ flagship project should almost halve the budget. The GLP Lab, the party’s open political laboratory, can no longer even pay current wages. A consequence of the parliamentary elections.

The Green Liberals lost only 0.25 percent of the vote, but still lost six seats. As of today, they will also lose about 160,000 francs in party contributions, which is why they plan to cut the party budget.

Ideas agency for politics

The austerity hammer also hits the political laboratory. “The GLP Lab previously had 75,000 francs at its disposal, but our budget is now 40,000 francs. Our wage costs alone amount to 64,000 francs per year,” says Corina Liebi (28). She has been heading the test laboratory since January 2022. The goal of the GLP Lab is to help ideas from the population achieve breakthroughs. The laboratory analyzes the input in exchange with experts. The best must be brought to parliament through political initiatives.

An example of an idea from the lab that has found its way into the political discourse is green parking zones for electric cars. According to the will of the GLP, these should be created instead of some blue zones.

Bake smaller rolls

But such ideas from the public will probably find their way to parliament less often in the future. “As president, I am employed 20 percent of the time, our general manager is compensated 40 percent and an intern is 50 percent,” says Liebi. Of course, you tend to work more anyway. But one thing is clear: “We will certainly not be able to maintain the 110 percent job. We need to reduce our workload,” the Lab president said. The laboratory must reorganize itself.

GLP co-secretary general Julie Cantalou (39) confirms that her party will bake smaller sandwiches in the future, as the party had promised to Blick.

Crowdfunding for the laboratory

Cantalou explains that they currently expect around 135,000 francs less for the parliamentary group – if the GLP faction leader Tiana Angelina Moser (44) manages to get to the Council of States in Zurich on Sunday. Otherwise, the GLP group would miss out on another 26,800 francs. It’s also unclear whether donations will continue to flow as before.

“Unfortunately, we have to cut back on staff and reduce budgets in the Green Liberal network, to which the GLP Lab belongs,” says Cantalou.

To ensure that ideas from the population do not dry up completely, lab boss Corina Liebi is raising money for the lab through crowdfunding: “We are now raising money on the Gofundme platform so that we can at least continue our most important projects.”

Source:Blick