The Basel delegation that had arrived was prepared to celebrate. Instead, she struggled with disappointment last week. With the non-election of Eva Herzog (60, SP) the dream of the people of Basel to have a federal councilor again after half a century burst.
GLP council member Katja Christ (50) is still frustrated. The fact that Elisabeth Baume-Schneider (58) will go to the state government opens old wounds for the woman from Basel. In addition to the two seats in the Council of States, the small canton of Jura now also has a seat in the state government – while the canton of Basel-Stadt, which is more than twice as large in population, is represented by only one vote in the Council of States.
«We want to be a canton like any other!»
Christian thinks this is unfair. Basel-Stadt and Baselland are being systematically weakened, she criticizes. The GLP politician seizes the election result as an opportunity to campaign for the upgrade of both Basels. A concern that has occupied her for a long time. “We want to be a canton like any other!” she says.
Officially, since 2000 there are no more half cantons. Nothing has changed except the name. Like the two Appenzells, as well as Nidwalden and Obwalden, the two Basels each have only one seat in the Council of States and only half a cantonal vote. This special status has historical reasons: the areas were once one and were eventually divided. In the case of the two Basels, that was almost 200 years ago.
Lawyer Christ believes that history alone no longer justifies the special status of Basel-Stadt and Basel-Landschaft. She therefore calls on the Federal Council to find a “clean and fair” solution for upgrading the two Basels without jeopardizing the “federal balance”.
More weight to the cities
The divided areas were given a special status to avoid over-representation of German-speaking Switzerland. However, Christ believes that this problem has been put into perspective since the canton of Jura separated from the canton of Bern. Today the problem is different: the under-representation of urban areas in the Council of States. “Upgrading the city canton of Basel-Stadt and the canton of Baselland with its large agglomeration could even improve the balance in this respect,” she emphasizes.
It is not the first time that the question has arisen to turn the two Basel into two whole cantons. Most recently, in 2001, the then bidder SP National Council Claude Janiak (74, SP) introduced the demand in the National Council. Among other things, she was devastated by the argument that in the interest of equal treatment one should also talk about upgrading the two Appenzells, as well as Obwalden and Nidwalden. And there is no doubt that this would seriously upset the balance of power between German- and French-speaking Switzerland, but also between city and countryside.
Comfort in 2024
If parliament accepts GLP National Councilor Christ’s proposal, the Federal Council will thus face a difficult task. It would be the department of the new Justice Minister Baume-Schneider that should think about a solution.
However the discussion turns out, the people of Basel will receive a small consolation in 2024. If all goes well, both councils will be owned by the inhabitants of Basel or the Basel region. The defeated candidate for the Bundesrat, Eva Herzog, will become president of the Council of States, and Eric Nussbaumer (62), from Basel, will become president of the National Council.