Elisabeth Baume-Schneider (58) is not officially yet in office as Minister of Justice. But the bourgeois politicians are already shooting against a possible left-wing asylum policy, which is expected of Baume-Schneider as the new federal councilor.
A statement Baume-Schneider made before being elected to government is now being criticized. At the party session in Lucerne, she said she wanted to improve the situation of people temporarily admitted to Switzerland from Iran, for example, and to give them protection status S, just like the Ukrainians.
“People from Iran are also our neighbors,” she says in an SRF article. According to statistics from the State Secretariat for Migration (SEM), most temporarily admitted refugees come from Afghanistan, Eritrea, Syria and Somalia.
“Nose bleeding”
Mitte boss Gerhard Pfister (60) now warned in the “Echo der Zeit” that the new federal council member “would get a nosebleed” if she strives to improve the position of temporarily admitted. The cantons, which are responsible for implementing asylum policy, would not appreciate this concern, Pfister said.
Asylum and refugee policy is likely to become a hot topic, especially in the upcoming election year. For the current year, the SEM expects a total of 22,000 asylum applications, 7,000 more than last year. In addition, about 71,200 Ukrainians have been granted protection status S in Switzerland alone this week.
SVP wants to abolish status S
These figures are grist to the mills of the SVP. It is not surprising that the party has a completely different opinion than Baume-Schneider. As Blick reported, SVP National Councilor Mike Egger (30) calls for the S status to be abolished. The temporary admission of people who have been classified as in need of protection takes place without an asylum procedure. Egger is convinced that this has resulted in reception structures at all levels of government becoming overburdened. He also wants a numerical upper limit for asylum applications.
It is unusual for ordinary citizens to criticize the policies of the first federal councilor of the Jura even before he takes office. Also because of the 123 votes in parliament that ensured that Baume-Schneider was elected, many also belonged to the middle class. (You)