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Four days after the Federal Council elections, Zurich State Councilor Daniel Jositsch (58) spoke bluntly about the tense atmosphere between him and the party. In the program ‘SonnTalk’ Jositsch chooses clear words. When asked whether he would still be an SP member in a year’s time, Jositsch answered evasively. He thinks so. Then the big one: “I haven’t had any conversations with the group yet,” Jositsch says on CH Media television channels. “To be honest, the discussion has crossed the line into ridiculousness for me.”
The elephant in the room: that Jositsch did not go to the podium during the elections for the Federal Council to announce his resignation. In the end he received 70 votes, but was not on the SP’s official ticket. The party had expected Jositsch to open up immediately.
Jositsch, who collected cross-party votes in the elections for the Council of States, claims he did nothing wrong. He lists four points: “First, it was clear that you do not become a federal councilor with 70 votes.” Secondly, he could very well have become a federal councilor. The Federal Assembly is in principle free to elect a member of the Federal Council, the Zurich resident said: “I do not feel obliged to limit this freedom in any way.”
Refers to the instruction ban
Third, says Jositsch, “nothing happened at all.” One of the two official SP candidates won the race. “And fourth, it is not customary to go to the lectern every time votes are cast.”
He thinks “the discussion” about the SP allegations is “greatly exaggerated”. The “Aargauer Zeitung” quotes him and says that he sees his decision not to make a statement in the Federal Assembly as an important signal against binding tickets. “It would have become dogma if I had run to the station. I am absolutely against the constitutional order being undermined in such a way.” The federal constitution contains a ban on instructions that protects council members from binding instructions.
Dissatisfaction among comrades
Jositsch apparently also feels resentment within his own ranks about what happened. «I find it strange to put so much pressure regarding a ticket. Many members of the Federal Assembly no longer agree with this.”
For law professor Jositsch, the ticket means a recommendation from the parliamentary group, which is being responded to positively. However, the freedom of the Federal Assembly must not be undermined: “For me, the pressure lies at the limit of the constitutional order.”
Would Jositsch have accepted the election?
In the event of elections, Jositsch responded to the question that he would have called for the meeting to be postponed if the vote had gone against the party line. “The faction and party leadership would then have seen what could be done.”
Jositsch makes it clear in ‘SonnTalk’: he will not let his party offer him everything. “The relationship with the SP is being tested like never before,” the CH Media newspapers analyze. “The party has a great interest in ensuring that there is no break.”
If Jositsch leaves the party, the SP will also lose all committee seats that the Zurich resident occupies. The mandates have already been assigned in a binding manner. Jositsch is a member of four committees and one delegation. Commission seats are tied to individuals, not parties. (kes)
Source:Blick
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