Will the Minister of Justice soon become the Minister of Finance? Federal Councilor Karin Keller-Sutter (58) would like to change regarding the December midterm elections. Because the Justice Department was never Keller-Sutter’s favorite – and now, with the vacant seats of Ueli Maurer (71) and Simonetta Sommaruga (62) there is an opportunity to move to a new department.
There has been much speculation about whether Keller-Sutter is targeting the finance division, which is currently still owned by Maurer. As Secretary of the Treasury, you are less in the public eye than some other federal councilors, but you often have a voice within the committee. After all, almost every business deals with finance. This is one of the reasons why the department is considered one of the most important and which the bourgeoisie absolutely wants to keep under control.
She keeps a low profile
When asked specifically if she would like to move to the finance department, Keller-Sutter has always been evasive. Just like the federal councilors do to enforce. The question comes too early, she said in an interview with “CH Media” in mid-October. In addition, divisional division is an internal matter for the Federal Council.
Still, Keller-Sutter now seems to be taking a public stance. On Saturday she beat the drum for herself in an interview with the “NSZ” as Minister of Finance. Not explicitly of course, but still clear: she says in an interview that she is currently more concerned with a topic other than the high number of asylum seekers, namely the global economic situation: “We have stagnation in the US. A recession is looming in the euro area and the economic forecasts for China are also not good due to the restrictive corona policy.
There is also the issue of energy supply, which will occupy Switzerland for years to come. The same goes for declining purchasing power due to inflation and debt. “I see this mixed situation as very difficult. We will also feel that in Switzerland. We have difficult economic years ahead of us.”
Commercial for himself as Minister of Finance
Here Keller-Sutter almost sounds like Treasury Secretary Ueli Maurer. And at the FDP party conference more than two weeks ago, the federal councilor had sent the language to the subject of finance – with words that sound like music to every citizen’s ears: she wants “financial discipline” and “a certain modesty” , she said. Switzerland must preserve the legacy of longtime FDP federal councilor Kaspar Villiger (81), who was finance minister from 1996 to 2003 and under whose auspices, as Keller-Sutter explained, the debt brake was once introduced.
But if the FDP has its way, another federal councilor must also change departments: According to the Sunday paper, liberals are trying to persuade Ignazio Cassis (61) to give up the foreign department.
So many things seem imaginable now. The departure of Maurer and Sommaruga offers very different opportunities – also for a package between SVP and FDP.
Anyway, the possibility seems within reach that Karin Keller-Sutter will soon be put in charge of cultivating Kaspar Villiger’s legacy.