‘We have doubled social spending’

Ruedi Studer and Pascal Tischhauser

It is an image that Eva Herzog (60) is attached to: she, the former financial director of Basel, who, together with SVP Finance Minister Ueli Maurer (71), is fighting against their own party for Corporate Tax Reform III. The business-friendly social democrat pushing through tax cuts in her canton. She is viewed skeptically in the SP and Juso openly criticizes her.

Herzog takes a deep breath when asked about the photo on the right left. It irritates her. “If people knew about the tax reforms we implemented in Basel, I wouldn’t have this image,” she says, looking over a cup of coffee. How the red-green majority, who ruled from 2005 to 2020, reorganized the tax system, she still supports to this day.

Taxes cut, social spending increased

There were only tax cuts when there were surpluses. “Without austerity packages!” she emphasizes. Taxes have been reduced mainly for small and medium-sized businesses, but also for lower and middle income earners. “The bottom line, big companies continue to pay the same or even more,” she notes. In return, state services have improved. Thus, the subsistence minimum became tax-free. And: “We’ve doubled social spending.”

Even though she belongs to the reform wing of the SP, she sees herself in the right party and also on the left. “There are people who can’t do it alone – and for that they need a social network,” she clarifies.

Work in the Third World store

Herzog grew up in the Basel industrial town of Pratteln. The father works in chemistry, the mother watches over the children. As a young woman she was politicized by the Third World movement long before she joined the SP. She worked in a Third World store, engaged in fair trade and helped people help themselves. “It was about social justice for me,” says Herzog.

These are also economic issues that she warms to during her history studies. “I’ve always been interested in what people live on, what their working conditions are like and how this is changing – from agriculture and trade to industrialization and the service society.” Her credo: “The economy is there for the people. If she’s all right, the people are all right.”

Women’s question led her to the SP

The fact that she eventually ends up in the SP has to do with the women’s issue. In 1993 she demonstrated with thousands of women on the Bundesplatz against the non-election of the SP candidate for the Federal Council Christiane Brunner (75). “I was amazed at the women on the field.”

Sensitive to “how impossible women were treated in the past”, she already wrote her dissertation on women’s gymnastics in the Basel area. “Back then, women were only allowed to do gymnastics to have a healthy body and to be able to give birth to healthy children,” she says, shaking her head. “You have to refrain from competitions. That was considered unfeminine.”

Gender equality policies are still important to Herzog. Especially the financial independence of women, which is why she is committed to individual taxation. And even though she’s been with her partner for decades and has two grown sons with him, getting married was never an issue. “The concept of marriage doesn’t work for me.”

City woman in the farmer’s run

When things get serious on December 7, she has better cards than competitor Élisabeth Baume-Schneider (58) thanks to her right-wing image among the common people. Maybe even with the farmers, to whom she has already objected.

While Herzog tends to represent urban Switzerland, she is no stranger to agriculture. In the early 1980s, Herzog took a farming course at the Charlottenfels Agricultural School in Neuhausen SH. “After high school, I wanted to immerse myself in a different world,” explains Herzog.

And she wrote her master’s thesis on Spanish agricultural history in the 18th century. When asked, she says, “Oh, I didn’t tell the Farmers Union that. I should definitely tell Markus Ritter that!” Ritter is not only a center member of the National Council, but also a farm chairman. Particularly among farmers, it has competition from Baume-Schneider, from Jura, which represents more national interests.

Distant, thin-skinned?

But: in the core issues they politicize along party lines. The differences are nuances. Soft factors can suddenly make the difference. As for Herzog, she has to come to terms with accusations of negative attributes. She is considered cooler, more aloof, thin-skinned. A Bundeshaus parliamentarian even describes them as “snippy”.

Attributes that make Herzog breathe. Cool? “That’s not true. I’m too explosive rather than too cool,” she says. Far away? “I don’t have to be ‘frère et cochon’ with everyone.” Or thin skin? “I can do more with it,” she admits. “What I’m not good at is innuendo — I’ll fight back.”

Executive work suits her

In any case, the SP woman is not worried that she will not be able to integrate into the Bundesrat. Executive work suits her, she knows from her 15 years of government work. “I like working in a team. As a parliamentarian you are lonelier, even though you already work together with others.”

If she is elected to the Federal Council, she would meet FDP woman Karin Keller-Sutter (58). What they have in common: they ran for a seat on the Federal Council in 2010 and had to give priority to the competition. Keller-Sutter only entered government on the second attempt as a member of the Council of States. Herzog, who was elected to the Stöckli in 2019, could now do the same.

Have a say in finances

Clearly, Herzog should be at the back of the distribution department. The finance department would hardly understand. She would still have a say – and advocate for investment in the future. “We must not miss the current momentum. We must now promote climate protection and invest money in renewable energy.” More must also be done for people with a low income, for example by reducing premiums.

Even the Corona mountain of debt should not prevent the federal government from investing. And then Herzog sounds on the far left: “We’re one of the least indebted countries — we don’t have to worry about finances.” If the federal government forgoes new tax cut plans, there will be plenty of money left in the treasury. “Money that can be spent wisely.” As Herzog demonstrated in Basel.