Eve vs Evic

Evi Allemann (44) starts. The Bernese SP councilor wants to succeed federal councilor Simonetta Sommaruga (62), she told the Tages-Anzeiger on Wednesday. After the rejection of national councilor Flavia Wasserfallen (43) on the same day, the Social Democrats still managed to send a young mother into the race.

At first glance, the SP succeeds in living up to its own claim. She wants to get some fresh air with a kind of Sanna Marin (36) – the Finnish prime minister and young mother. Only one top candidate from their own ranks could throw a spanner in the works for the party: Eva Herzog (60).

The pressure on waterfalls would have been enormous

If you want to get to the Federal Council for the Social Democrats, you probably have to get past the former councilor of Basel and the current councilor. She invited Thursday to the press event in Bern. She wouldn’t have done that for a rejection.

In any case, Wasserfallen did not want to compete with Herzog. She wants to continue her work in the National Council and ‘hopefully’ in the Council of States from December 2023, she says. “In addition, I currently lead a work and family life that corresponds to my personal ideas, and I therefore decide not to make significant changes to this balance.”

According to party insiders, the pressure on Wasserfallen to get into the race was enormous. Because before that there was only a shower of cancellations. Berne co-party leader Mattea Meyer (35) and national councilor Nadine Masshardt (38) waved Sommaruga’s resignation the same day. Later, the Aargauer former councilor Pascale Bruderer (45) and the Vaud councilor Rebecca Ruiz (40) followed. So the party leadership knelt down falls.

SP tip stuck to left foot

So now it should be judged by another woman from Bern. Evi Allemann, who has been in the cantonal government since 2018, has barely made national headlines since then. Even the fact that she hasn’t been an MP for five years shouldn’t help her take precedence over Herzog.

With their home power in the Council of State, the experience of the governing council and their Realo policy on the right side of the SP, the chance that the Basel woman will get the Sommaruga seat on December 7 is much greater. However, she should not be the preferred candidate of the justified party leadership around Mattea Meyer (35) and Cédric Wermuth (36).

The developments of recent days show that the SP leadership has been misled by the resignation of Sommaruga. The party was not well prepared. At a fire drill, she quickly tried to take control by immediately targeting a female two-person ticket.

Rejections opened the field for Jositsch

But apparently the SP leadership missed it with their hasty shot to secure several candidates in advance. Instead, one after the other withdrew. “The party leadership wanted to clarify things quickly and thus speculated,” said a former observer of the Federal Palace. “Just because so many women canceled so quickly, the field was cleared so much that Jositsch was able to jump in. That could have been solved in a smarter way.”

In fact, the women’s hesitation should have encouraged Zurich SP councilor Daniel Jositsch (57) to first announce his candidacy for the Federal Council, contrary to party specifications as a man, thus starting an internal party debate on gender equality.

‘It is an uncomfortable starting point for the SP’

Angry tongues already joked that the comrades would eventually have to nominate Jositsch to be able to submit a two-person ticket at all. Even though the pranksters are quiet now and it doesn’t matter if another Swiss Sanna Marin throws her hat in the ring, she’s struggling to get past Herzog.

“It is an uncomfortable starting position for the SP,” says the observer. “Herzog isn’t exactly a hope for young people, after all.” But you would have liked such a person, a young woman with children. But exactly: if Herzog takes office, the Federal Assembly must elect her. Not a good start for the relationship between the new federal councilor and the party.