Federal Council candidate with heart and soul

Elisabeth Baume-Schneider (58)? When Simonetta Sommaruga (62) announced her resignation in early November, no one had the name of the Jurassic in mind. She herself did not even see herself as a possible successor, she says.

Now, less than a month later, the State Council, largely unknown in German-speaking Switzerland, is on the SP Bundesrat map. EBS, as it is also known, started the Bundesrat race a little behind its two opponents. But she quickly caught up. At the SP’s public hearings, she made a lasting impression with her fresh, relaxed demeanor.

She is herself, and maybe that’s what makes her special. An example? When Baume-Schneider left the studio after appearing on the news of French-speaking Swiss television, her phone rang: it was a man from Valais. He found her performance convincing and wanted to congratulate her, so he looked up her number on the Internet. De Jura picked up the phone and spoke to the man for more than 20 minutes, much to the chagrin of her communications team, who had to delay the waiting journalists.

A ski lift, a pub, cheap petrol

Baume-Schneider profiles itself as a candidate for the peripheral regions. She is committed to the whole of Switzerland, even where “there is not a bus every ten minutes”. She believes that the federal government should pay more attention to rural regions, for example when it comes to renovating buildings or installing solar panels.

Why this is so important to her becomes apparent outwardly when you arrive at her hometown, a village of 1,500 inhabitants wedged between the canton of Bern and France. A disused ski lift, a pub and the cheapest petrol in the country: welcome to Les Breuleux.

She adopted Pierre-Yves Maillard’s cat

Baume-Schneider lives with her husband Pierre-André in a large house on the edge of the forest above the village. The two adult sons have both moved away – instead, black nose sheep have been grazing in the meadow next to the house for two years. In the living room, a cat strokes her legs – it once belonged to Pierre-Yves Maillard (54), national councilor of Vaud, she says.

From the living room you can see the wind turbines on Mont Crosin, the largest wind farm of its kind in Switzerland near Tramelan BE. The light noise of the rotors is not a problem for the opponent of nuclear energy from the start. Above all, the posts remind of the canton borders: less than two kilometers, and the Federal Council candidate would have come from Bern!

Romande with the proximity of German-speaking Switzerland

However, Elisabeth Baume-Schneider comes from Jura, a canton she has grown fond of and where she was in government from 2003 to 2015. As a respected minority voice in the executive branch, she immediately understood that the economic future of the Jura was more closely linked to German-speaking Switzerland. Notably, she created the country’s first bilingual Matura and chaired the Intergovernmental Conference of Northwest Switzerland.

The SPler herself did not first learn German at school, but grew up bilingual thanks to her German-Swiss father. Although High German is rather clumsy, she is fluent in Swiss German, albeit with a French accent.

Voice of those otherwise barely heard

Her father was once a Liberal councilor in the Jura. She herself was active in the Revolutionary Marxist League before joining the SP. When asked, she says: “I have always tried to be close to the reality of families, children and young people. I don’t think that’s enough to call me an extreme left.”

Baume-Schneider is now chairman of the influential environmental committee of the Council of States. She is considered a creator who does not push herself in the spotlight. Most recently, it is said to have contributed, among other things, to securing a majority for the solar offensive carried out by parliament. An important dossier for the left-wing politician is also social and asylum policy. The former social worker sees herself as the voice of those otherwise rarely heard. For example, she advocates extending S status to other groups of people.

“I really enjoy this adventure”

Before being elected to the Council of States, Baume-Schneider ran the School of Social Work in Lausanne VD for four years. There she gained enormous respect for social security. She is outraged that poverty in Switzerland is still seen as an individual responsibility. “This social network must be made more positive, just like the other social insurances.”

Baume-Schneider is bursting with energy. “I really enjoy this adventure,” she says, referring to her candidacy for the Bundesrat. She feels no pressure whatsoever: as an outsider she has nothing to lose and everything to gain.

After all, she also realizes that the chances are small that she will be elected as the next member of the Federal Council on December 7. Especially since she is French-speaking Switzerland and German-speaking Switzerland would be under-represented with her in the Federal Council. She was probably put on the ticket by many to increase Herzog’s chances.

Baume-Schneider is not discouraged by this. She looks forward to convincing all groups of the quality of her work, which is unanimously recognized by the Social Democrats. “I’m like all Jura: humble, but when I start, I’m a shrimp.”