Resistance to oil hash browns

It is no secret that SVP Federal Council candidate Albert Rösti (55) is well disposed towards the car and oil lobby. He was chairman of Swissoil for seven years and since this year chairman of Auto-Switzerland, the association of car importers. And in an interview with the newspaper “SonntagsBlick” he recently spoke out clearly in favor of lifting the ban on the construction of new nuclear power plants.

Now there is resistance against crown favorite Rösti. With the call “No to the oil lobby in the Bundesrat”, the environmental organization Umverkehr wants to prevent the election of the “oil and car lobbyist” Rösti in the state government. For the letter published on Thursday, “several hundred signatures were collected in a few hours”, according to Umverkehr spokeswoman Tonja Zürcher (39).

“extended arm” of the lobbies

To meet its climate commitments and ensure its energy security, Switzerland must accelerate the phase-out of fossil fuels and the reduction of motorized traffic, the Umverkehr appeal said. However, the SVP would sabotage a “reasonable climate policy”. The election of Rösti to the Bundesrat would therefore mean “a brake on the indispensable energy transition”.

“We are very concerned about what it would mean for our climate and environmental policy if a person like Rösti were elected to the Federal Council,” affirms Zürcher. For detours, Rösti is the “extended arm” of the oil and car lobby.

Climate researchers and comedians

Umverkehr is not alone with these concerns. Signatories to the call are personalities from science, culture and civil society. Among them, for example, the ETH climate researcher Sonia Seneviratne (48), the Nobel Prize winner for physics Jacques Dubouchet (80) and the comedian Thomas Wiesel (33).

The climatologist Martine Rebetez (61), who conducts research at the University of Neuchâtel and at the Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research (WSL), has put her name to the call. It is clear to them that the energy transition is not speeding up because of the oil lobbyists. The lobbyists are already well represented in the Swiss parliament. And one of the most important Swiss oil lobbyists is Albert Rösti.

A “wrong sign”

The French-speaking Swiss philosopher Dominique Bourg (69) also finds clear words: That an oil lobbyist like Rösti is even eligible for election is “a pity”. Because: Rösti and the SVP would question man-made climate change. “If he were elected, it would send a very bad signal internationally,” Bourg said.

Filmmaker Stina Werenfels (58) also signed the call. She would find it extremely disturbing if Rösti were elected to the state government: “It would be the wrong sign for an oil lobbyist to become a member of the Federal Council today.” She suspects that Rösti would continue to engage in “shameless interest politics” as a member of the Federal Council. “It looks like he will continue to play down the climate crisis and slow down the expansion of renewables,” says Werenfels. It would therefore be fatal for the filmmaker if Rösti became head of the UVEK.

It remains to be seen whether Rösti will be elected to the Federal Council and whether he will take over the uvek. Should that happen, Umverkehr wonders whether Albert Rösti would travel to the COP28 climate conference as a federal councilor as a lobbyist for the fossil industry – or be seen as representing the Swiss government.