The outgoing SP councilor Simonetta Sommaruga (62) was the favorite enemy of the right. For example, the SVP repeatedly called for her resignation – and more: Sommaruga had to be “deposed”, a communiqué stated at the end of August.
Moments later, SVP National Councilor Christian Imark (40) threatened quite openly. “Madam Federal Councilor: If you have to apply the emergency scenarios announced this winter, people will take to the streets and demand much more than your resignation,” the Solothurn raged in the National Council chamber.
Federal Councilors on the Tram – Only Half the Truth
Those who cannot stand criticism should stay out of politics, the federal councilor said on Wednesday when she announced her resignation. And yet the attacks did not leave her untouched, she admitted: “The relationship has become rougher in recent years.” In Switzerland, people are proud that the members of the Federal Council still use trams and buses, says Sommaruga. “But it’s only half the truth. We have personal protection for many performances these days.”
Everyone should know: “If the sound gets rougher, it has an effect. On the climate in this country.”
“Leave a Disaster”
It bore little fruit. Even after she announced her resignation, her political opponents did not hold back. FDP National Councilor Marcel Dobler (42) described Sommaruga’s resignation as a “strategic retreat” to secure the two SP seats in the Federal Council – without mentioning the personal situation and illness of her husband Lukas Hartmann (78) . He later deleted the tweet and apologized. SVP Landsraadsman Roger Köppel (57) accused the Federal Councilor of “being weak and tired for a long time”.
And SVP National Councilor Thomas Matter (56) wrote Sommaruga on Blick TV on Thursday as “totally ideological and fulfilled leftist dreams”. You have “left a disaster everywhere” – in the asylum system, but also in the energy strategy.
“People in the Center”
An assessment that SP Landraad member Céline Widmer (44) did not want to leave on Sommaruga: The SVP does not like Sommaruga because it remains stubborn and factual and manages to bring different sides to the table. “The SVP has always shot at them, sometimes with a tone that I think is borderline.”
In part, it is certainly also thanks to their departments that the SVP likes to berate the Bernese. As justice minister, Sommaruga often faced concerns from the People’s Party. In the mass immigration initiative, the deportation initiative or the enforcement initiative, she fought against the SVP. In the UVEK, on the other hand, the fact that the SVP has made the fight against the left-wing cities a priority due to a lack of alternative topics should have played a role.
Sommaruga received support from Balthasar Glättli (50), the party leader of the Greens. It speaks for Sommaruga that she is resigning because of the energy crisis, Glättli said on Blick TV. That she publicly admits that she is no longer 1000 percent efficient due to the health condition of her husband Lukas Hartmann (78) and therefore transfers the responsibility to someone who can.
“I have scales on my soul”
SVP-Matter was not deterred by this: the SVP will keep a close eye on which two politicians the SP is now proposing as Sommaruga’s successor. “If they’re left-wing extremists, our SVP ticket might look different,” he announces. For example, if ex-Juso boss Tamara Funiciello (32) were to be hanged, the SVP would occupy their ticket with someone who polarized, he threatened. On the other hand, he could live with a candidacy from SP councilor Flavia Wasserfallen (43), according to Matter.
However, the matter was somewhat rushed: firstly, Funiciello’s name is not at all up for discussion with the SP. And secondly, the SVP sets its official Bundesrat ticket on November 18 – a week before the SP.
But whichever woman is on it: from Sommaruga you can get tips on how to deal with the attacks. Sommaruga herself has donned a tank, as her old confidant Rudolf Strahm (79) said in the “Tages-Anzeiger”: “Over time, she got scales on her soul.”
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