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Beat Jans (59) has been district president of Basel-Stadt for about three years. Now the former national councilor and vice-president of the SP Switzerland wants to crown his political career with a seat in the state government.
Beat Jans has been a fixture in local and national politics for over twenty years. He received the most votes in the 2015 and 2019 National Council elections. And in 2020, as a newcomer, he reached the Basel city council in the first voting round. Characteristic of Jans are his enthusiasm, eloquence and commitment to people.
Farmer with ETH studies
Jans grew up in Riehen BS as the child of a working-class family in an apartment building. He completed an apprenticeship as a farmer and trained as an agricultural technician before studying environmental sciences at ETH Zurich.
He only joined the Basel SP at the age of 34. Just two years later he took over the presidency of the canton party. Under his leadership, the SP won a third seat in the government. Eva Herzog (61), little known in Basel at the time and now a state councilor, was elected. Together with the Green Alliance, the Left formed the majority in the seven-member executive branch – it was the beginning of the almost sixteen-year era of red-green Basel.
He campaigned for more women in government
As the strongest faction, the SP also won seven seats in the Grand Council. The success was also due to the fact that Jans integrated migrants into the party – including National Councilor Mustafa Atici (54), who was voted out in October. Jans also said twenty years ago that more women are absolutely needed in government. Now the female supporter in particular had the upper hand in the internal debate of the SP against government councilor Evi Allemann (45) from Bern.
From 2001, Jans politicized for ten years in the Grand Council of Basel, where he was known for his passionate, sometimes somewhat bitter, voices. In 2010, he replaced the resigned Ruedi Rechsteiner (65) in the National Council and quickly made a name for himself throughout Switzerland as an environmental and energy politician. In addition to his political work, Jans worked for nature conservation organization Pro Natura and the Basel consultancy firm Ecos.
The defeat was followed by a jump in government
In 2015, the father of two daughters and a politician previously accustomed to success had to accept defeat. In his place, the SP in Federal Bern elected Roger Nordmann as party leader. But Jans found a new task: he became vice-president of SP Switzerland in 2016.
He also considered running for the Council of States. However, there was no internal party duel against Eva Herzog: Jans withdrew his application. This is because there is a risk that women are seriously underrepresented in the Council of States.
After his re-election as a member of the National Council, Jans ran for the Basel Government Council in 2020 – and was elected in the first round. When Green government chairman Elisabeth Ackermann (60) did poorly in the elections and no longer stood as a candidate, he spontaneously applied for the district council, although he would actually have preferred to be head of the Department of Economy, Social Affairs and Environment.
Basel hopes for a seat in the Federal Council
His administrative experience makes Jans the favorite of some observers in the elections for the Federal Council. Just like the fact that Basel-Stadt has not been represented in the Federal Council for fifty years. The fact that he has no longer been part of the federal parliament since the end of 2020 could be a disadvantage for Jans.
The left-wing agricultural specialist is also opposed by the farmers’ lobby, which emerged stronger from the October elections. As a national councilor, Jans fought, among other things, for the abolition of animal contributions. (SDA)
Source:Blick
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