It was clear: the newly elected SVP federal councilor Albert Rösti (55) is taking over the Department of Environment and Energy (UVEK). Karin Keller-Sutter (58, FDP) gives up the Ministry of Justice (EJPD) and goes to the Ministry of Finance (EFD). The EJPD surprisingly inherits SP federal councilor Elisabeth Baume-Schneider (58).
In the other departments everything remains the same. Also in the foreign department (EDA). Although Ignazio Cassis (61) has hardly succeeded in getting anything out of the EU dossier since the burial of the EU framework agreement, and talks were held in the background to initiate a change at the top of the EDA. For example, Alain Berset (50) would initially like to work for the FDF, but then shift his attention to the FDFA.
Rochade would have been possible: trained doctor and former social politician Cassis could have taken over the Department of the Interior (EDI) instead of Berset, where he achieved little. And Berset would have become foreign minister.
But nothing came of that. Meanwhile, it is even said that Berset’s desire to change was not so great after all.
Minister of the Environment Rösti gives the floor
The most talked about anyway is that Rösti, of all people, comes to the climate and transport department of the nuclear plant supporter, car friend and oil lobbyist. Left-Green speaks of a catastrophe.
Rösti will probably try to get the new nuclear plant built – and probably fail. And he was able to slow down the climate-friendly course of his predecessor Simonetta Sommaruga (62, SP) – but course corrections of a supertanker like the Uvek take time.
Atom-Doris managed to get out
In addition, things often turn out differently than you think: it was Minister of Energy Doris Leuthard (59, CVP), better known as Atomic Doris, who decided to phase out nuclear energy. That’s why politicians who know Rösti from the Environment Committee don’t look so black.
However, left and green politicians would have liked to see Rösti, at the head of the Ministry of Justice, justify the high number of refugees and rebut his own party’s accusations of “asylum chaos”.
Rösti has to fight against the SVP in the UVEK – so he will have to defend the indirect counter-proposal to the glacier initiative, which the SVP is fighting against.
The common people prevailed
The bottom line is that the bourgeois FDP-SVP majority prevailed in the division division. And even before the two-hour meeting on Thursday, it was clear what the majority wanted.
With a view to next autumn’s elections, party interests were naturally at the forefront: now Berset can continue to make things difficult for the EDI, and with Baume-Schneider as migration minister, the SVP has a new target. That should weaken the SP in the election year – in the mind of FDP chairman Thierry Burkart (47).
Instead of losing the Federal Council seat to Ignazio Cassis, an SP seat could be shaky a year from now – or even go to the Greens, the middle class hopes.
Will Amherd be ahead of Berset?
To avoid losing a seat, Berset is reportedly not going as fast as expected. This is because it is unlikely that a sitting federal councilor will be voted out.
It is more likely that Viola Amherd (60) will say goodbye to Wallis after her presidential year in 2024. Instead of familiarizing herself with the UVEK as a former transport politician, she took the easy way out and stayed with the Ministry of Defence. The Federal Council also recently sweetened the DDPS with a cybersecurity treat.
The distribution of departments not only reflects the balance of power in the Bundesrat. It’s also due to the fact that only Keller-Sutter had the will and courage to take on another department.