Basel bidder SP alderman Eric Nussbaumer (62) is upset. “Doesn’t Albert Rösti really know anything better than traveling to a cantonal election campaign and to ‘major election events’ in the first 100 days of his Concordance Federal Council days?” he writes on Twitter. For Nussbaumer, this is nothing short of a “failure” – a neo-magistrate’s mistake.
The appearance of the brand new SVP federal councilor Albert Rösti (55) at the election event on January 18 of the bourgeois alliance in the Basel area is apparently mainly intended to benefit his party colleague Sandra Sollberger (49).
In addition to the previous two, Anton Lauber (61, center) and Monica Gwind (59, FDP), the national councilor of the SVP will contest the government elections for the first time on February 12. Any help is welcome, especially from such a prominent side.
“He harms the institution”
That does not go down well with the left camp. “In the first 100 days of a federal councilor’s office, no public appearances are scheduled. That’s an unwritten law,” Nussbaumer told Blick. A performance is inappropriate, certainly not for an explicit election campaign. This first phase was intended to familiarize him with his new position. “In the middle of the biggest energy crisis in decades, Rösti would have plenty to do.”
If Albert Rösti had already agreed to participate in the election event before he was elected to the Bundesrat, he must now cancel, says SP politician Nussbaumer. “But if he agreed only after his election, he clearly did not understand the office. He is damaging the institution.”
Rösti himself could not be reached for comment.
Manual expects “appropriate restraint”
However, there is nothing in the Aide-mémoire, the handbook for members of the Federal Council, of any particular restraint during the first 100 days in office. The members of the Federal Council are free to participate in cantonal or regional events of their own party.
However, if such events take place less than two months before cantonal elections or ballots, members of the government may only speak on federal votes. “Due restraint” with partisan political activity is especially expected before federal elections and voting.
“Federal council members also have a party political background”
On the bourgeois side, people in the Basel area are also much more relaxed: “I expect members of the Federal Council to uphold the principle of collegiality in government affairs,” says Central National Councilor Elisabeth Schneider-Schneiter (58). “But they all have a partisan background.”
According to Schneider-Schneiter, if Albert Rösti finds time to travel to the Basel area, he should not be denied it. “If the new SP federal councilor Elisabeth Baume-Schneider had come, the left probably wouldn’t have blamed her.” (dba)