The Register of Sins by Eva Herzog

A new light shines in Switzerland: Eva Herzog (60), the candidate to succeed Federal Councilor Simonetta Sommaruga (62). The media agrees that the Basel woman works “meticulously”; “Dossier-proof and extremely popular”, says the SP councilor enthusiastically about SRF. The “NZZ” praises its “financial competence”, the “BZ Basel” its ability to compromise.

The story of the zealous reorganizer of the canton’s finances caught on in no time.

Duchess Eva, the infallible? People look for critical voices in public for a long time. In Basel, people prefer to plan the big party with carnival leftovers and lanterns in the unlikely event that the pharmaceutical city will be represented in the Federal Council on December 7 for the first time in almost 50 years.

Nothing should disturb the party. Herzog’s reign was not nearly as smooth as the sounds of the shawm suggest, on the contrary: whenever an affair over escalating finances shook the canton, she was on board.

Construction debacle around Biozentrum

For example, there is the construction debacle around the Biozentrum of the University of Basel: In the fall of 2021, the university opened its new laboratory building – four years late and about 100 million francs more expensive than the approved 328 million francs. The two half cantons, Stadt and Landschaft, were the builders.

The Basel parliament had the matter investigated by a parliamentary committee of inquiry (PUK). Their conclusion is damning: the main reasons for delays and additional costs are “insufficient planning and insufficient compliance with the oversight and due diligence obligations of the responsible authorities,” according to the report of August 24 this year.

The steering committee, the strategic decision-making body of the Biozentrum, included then construction director Hans-Peter Wessels (60) and former education director Christoph Eymann (71) as head of the supervisory body and, from 2017, his successor Conradin Cramer (43, LDP).

PUK blames Herzog

The PUK also assigns Herzog a “high responsibility”. She served on the Steering Committee as Finance Director from 2009 to 2013. At the time the project was planned.

The financing of the additional costs also drew criticism. Because the extra CHF 100 million had to come from somewhere. Heading these “partnership negotiations” was the responsibility of Treasurer Herzog and her counterpart from Basel.

Their solution was “incorrect”, blames the PUK. Because, according to the investigative body, Herzog and her allies asked the university for pre-financing and thus tried to channel the money flow through parliament. The University Council is involved in this. His then president Ueli Vischer speaks today of a “mess”.

Compared to Sunday Blick and the Basel online magazine “Bajour”, Herzog emphasizes that the steering committee “exercised our duty of care and supervision to the best of our knowledge and belief”. “When we recognized the problems, we reacted immediately.” And the financing was done “in accordance with the Financial Budget Act”.

Confusion about Swiss Exhibition

Another example: the unrest surrounding the Swiss Exhibition Center, once the pride of the trading city of Basel. In 2013, the operating company MCH Group opened a new CHF 430 million exhibition building. The canton has poured 90 million francs into the new building for the watch and jewelery fair – for nothing, as it stands now. First, the prestigious watch and jewelery fair Baselworld moved. Then came the pandemic. Taxpayers also bear the financial consequences. This year, parliament again approved a capital increase of CHF 34 million for the stock exchange.

Eva Herzog was also on the VR. The political competition of SVP and GLP unsuccessfully demanded the resignation of her and her fellow party member Christoph Brutschin (64) from the board of directors; the government representatives are “jointly responsible” for the company’s loss of value and see themselves in a conflict of roles, as they must represent the interests of the MCH Group on the one hand and those of the taxpayer on the other.

When asked, Eva Herzog replies: “The fact that the Basel Grand Council awarded funds to the MCH Group for a capital increase was a commitment to an institution operating in a demanding environment – ​​as were the external examples in Geneva (motor show) and St. Gallen (Olma ) to show.”

She sees no role conflict

What the “rumored role conflict” should consist of, Herzog continues, is not clear. The public delegates in the VR would represent the interests of the Basel site – “just like, for example, the public delegates of the city and canton of Zurich at Zurich Airport”.

Then there is the Basler Kantonalbank (BKB) affair. Between 2009 and 2015, the canton’s money house lost more than 90 million francs. The reason was the collaboration with a fraudulent investment company. There was a reprimand from the Netherlands Authority for the Financial Markets (Finma) and a GPK subcommittee became active. Their conclusion: Eva Herzog, as a responsible member of the government council, has insufficiently performed her supervisory task.

She contradicts: “During my time as head of the finance department, my department developed guidelines for investment management, which defined the roles of the operational level, the government council and the grand council for state-related companies. These new guidelines are based on the guidelines of the federal government (corporate governance report of September 13, 2006) and reflect the latest state of affairs in the field of good governance.”

An alpha animal for the Federal Council

The cases mentioned do not rule out the possibility that Herzog could be an excellent federal councilor with farsightedness in European politics – and that she would probably become an alpha beast in state government again, as some in Bern hope. Media professionals, as well as party members, respectfully describe how they were reprimanded by telephone by Herzog after an unpopular statement.

Even if she was in charge of oversight but not operational responsibility, how would Herzog, as a federal councilor, ensure that she fulfilled her oversight duties adequately and in the interest of the taxpayer? So far this question has only been heard very, very quietly.

With the doctorate in history, it looks like an entire city is running for the Federal Council. A city with a glorious history and the self-awareness that the current situation does not correspond to its true calling. You have already endured enough humiliations. The “Basler Zeitung” and the “Läckerli Huus” are owned by Zurich, the Berners have taken the lead in football. It is all the more urgent to be represented in the state government together with Herzog again: she is a star, bring her here.

SP and LDP share power in Basel

This is one of the reasons why scandals do not stay with her. The Basel social democrats have come on the right track, they have become involved with the pharmaceutical dynasties, who, as patrons, help finance culture and society and in return are patted by the tax judge. The companies make possible the highest GDP per capita in the country, which is why the candidate for the Federal Council was recently proud to note that she had doubled social spending as finance director. The Jurassians can’t afford that.

The SP shares political power with the liberal democrats of the LDP, the traditional party of ‘Basler Daigs’ and the cosmopolitan bourgeoisie. Of course, both in front and behind the scenes, the LDP and SP often support each other as opponents. The two parties are connected in various foundations and public institutions.

The PUK report on the Biozentrum gives an example of the system: LDP man Christoph Eymann sent an email on August 8 asking the authors to remove a section naming those responsible in their position and relationship to each other. Eymann writes: “I kindly ask you to delete the passage (…) that speaks of the composition of the Steering Committee.” Discrete influence failed.

When asked, Eymann argued that the passage was “completely irrelevant to the PUK’s auditing activities”, and that the inspectors’ findings also ignored “political decisions and our system”. On the accusation of dishonesty, he says: “The term ‘crofted’ means favoritism and unfair dealings in business dealings. All the people mentioned in the PUK report who have the ‘mistake’ (from the PUK point of view) of belonging to the same party have successfully campaigned for the development of the university and have not pursued their own interests.”

Never made public

SP man Hans-Peter Wessels, who sat next to her when Herzog’s candidacy for the Bundesrat was announced, had taken responsibility for the Biozentrum debacle as construction director in 2019.

Eymann, as head of the steering group, said in October in the “Basler Zeitung” that he feels at most a shared responsibility. A month later, the medical school awarded him an honorary doctorate.

Eva Herzog was never publicly questioned because of the controversial financial solution in the Biozentrum case.
That may be due to their expertise. And probably in Basel too.