Sleep three more times. Then it becomes clear who will succeed the departing Simonetta Sommaruga (62) and Ueli Maurer (72) in the Bundesrat. If political scientist Claude Longchamp has his way, the favorites are still ahead. He bets that SP council member Eva Herzog (60, BS) and SVP national council member Albert Rösti (55, BE) will win the race on Wednesday.
Many federal parliamentarians also see it that way, according to a survey by “Le Matin Dimanche” among more than 30 national councilors. The odds for Herzog against her competitor Elisabeth Baume-Schneider (58, JU) are two to one. With a ratio of three to one, Rösti’s chances are even greater than those of Hans-Ueli Vogt (52, ZH).
More hearings on Tuesday
Even though this is a pocket calculator gimmick, the trend should be correct, according to a Blick review. Nevertheless, the candidates have been going full steam ahead in recent days and fighting for every vote.
Further hearings in parliamentary groups are scheduled for Tuesday. For example, the two SP women object to the FDP. There, there is great resistance to a fourth Latin seat in the Bundesrat – and therefore to Baume-Schneider. The Jura is listened to and can also be “elected”, explains FDP leader Thierry Burkart (47) in the “NZZ am Sonntag”. He does make it clear that “the information that it was a German-speaking Swiss office mainly came from colleagues from western Switzerland”.
Herzog’s “register of sins”
In the case of the FDP, former Basel finance director Herzog probably has an edge. However, votes in the plenum could cost her her “register of sins,” which made the Sunday vision public. The focus is on the construction debacle around the University of Basel’s Biozentrum, which opened in autumn 2021 – four years late and about 100 million francs more expensive than the approved 328 million francs.
Herzog was the steering committee’s finance director from 2009 to 2013 when the project was planned. The report of a parliamentary committee of inquiry therefore attributes ‘great responsibility’ to her. The steering committee exercised its “duty of care and supervision in good conscience”, according to Herzog. And: “When we recognized the problems, we reacted immediately.”
Will Herzog be slowed down by this mistake on the home stretch? At the hearings on Tuesday, she will probably have to answer one or the other annoying question. Not only in the FDP, but also in the middle group, which includes some critical financial politicians.
How convincing your answers are also determines how good your result will be on Wednesday. This continues to cause tension.