“I could understand Alain’s resignation”

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It is quite remarkable when a party chairman publicly distances himself from his Bundesrat. The social democrats with their notorious car mentality need a closer look – especially when both members of the dual leadership feel compelled to limit the public damage in the election year.

It happened last Tuesday and the trigger was – again – Alain Berset (50), who previously in “Le Temps” and then in the “NZZ am Sonntag” had accused people of “war madness” who had at least one give indirect arms aid to Ukraine. In doing so, the Federal President used the pattern of interpretation of this peculiar new peace movement, which ranges from European right-wing populists to professional German debaters such as Alice Schwarzer (80) and Sahra Wagenknecht (53).

“I have a different attitude than Alain Berset,” says co-chair Mattea Meyer (35) to SRF. He shares “neither his analysis nor the conclusions,” said co-chair Cédric Wermuth (37) in the “NZZ” about his comrades in the state government.

The pivotal figure at his side

After a series of scandals and scandals, the confrontation between the SP leadership and the magistrate marks a new peak in the estrangement between the left-wing People’s Party and its member of the government, and it is not only in Bern that people wonder whether Berset, who despite his young age of 50 he seems to have already reached the late autumn of his political career, is about the self-importance of a long-serving member of the Federal Council, even a touch of caesarean, or rather the maneuvering skills of a gifted tactician.

Anyone who wants to know more about Berset cannot ignore Ruth Lüthi (75). She is one of the political figures at the Saane, was 15 years before the SP in the government of Freiburg and was a candidate for the Federal Council elections in 2002 as successor to Ruth Dreifuss (83).

At the time, their supporters did not care that their canton was already represented in the state government by Joseph Deiss (77), which says a lot about the pride of social democracy in Freiburg. In a contribution from the SRF at the time, the cantonal SP chairman was confident. Lüthi is the right person, even though she was born in Grenchen: “For us she is enough Romande to represent us in Bern.”

The pacesetter at that time is Solange Berset (71). At that time, her then just 30-year-old son Alain accompanied candidate Lüthi through the lobby of the Federal Palace as a campaign strategist. Lüthi was so taken with the young Berset, who assisted her in hearings and TV interviews, that she nominated him for the Council of States a year later, which turned out to be the right tip in 2003. Thanks to Berset’s sensational election, Lüthi is regarded as a key figure in the political career of the current Federal President. He reverently calls her “ma marraine”, meaning “my God”.

When asked by SonntagsBlick about the latest headlines about her political foster son or godchild, the grande dame speaks of a “campaign” against him. “I support him a lot, he is a faithful companion.” As Minister of Health, he has “done an excellent job” during the pandemic: “Thanks to him, Switzerland has come through the Corona period so well.”

She is convinced that this is why he is in the crosshairs of his opponents: “You scandalize everything because you want it gone.” She was therefore “very surprised” by the intervention of the SP leadership, not least because the issue of arms exports was “not an easy one” and she was inclined to follow Mr Berset’s line; the field of humanitarian aid is “much more our responsibility,” she says.

He had kept “the perspective”.

Lüthi is certainly not alone in this, on the contrary: in Welschland, traditional pacifism is much more deeply entrenched in the left than in German-speaking Switzerland, which is why Berset also embodies with his Ukraine statements the neutrality-political divide within his political camp, which is what the tug-of-war in the party don’t fit too much into the script.

Added to this is the solidarity of the citizens of Freiburg. Urs Schwaller (70) sat with Berset on the Council of States from 2004 to 2011. The CVP politician categorically refuses to say ‘personal and political things’ to him, with whom he ‘co-operated very well’ as a member of the Bundesrat. It is a telling silence from Schwaller, a testimony of loyalty.

Together with Schwaller, Berset pushed his Machiavelli style to the top form. First there were regular cubic capacity class backroom deals; Berset secured left-wing support for the appointment of Christian Democrat Corina Casanova (67) as chancellor, while in return a CVP-backed comrade became Secretary General of the Federal Assembly.

This Christian-social axis should become the basis for one of the most striking actions in recent Swiss history: the removal of SVP tycoon Christoph Blocher (82) from the Federal Council in 2007.

Berset had learned the art of tactics and alliance building in Freiburg’s Constitutional Council. He was elected there in 2000 at the age of 28, where he worked for four years with his friend Christian Levrat (52). The two became a dream team in the Federal Palace: hobby runner Berset in the Council of States (mother Solage was Swiss marathon champion, son Alain university champion over 800 metres) and chess player Levrat as SP chairman.

Ruth Lüthi says that even during his time as election strategist at Berset, she appreciated that he “always kept an eye on things despite everything”.

Four years after Blocher’s coup, Berset himself was elected to the state government, where he had only moderate luck as social affairs minister, so the defeat in the 2017 AHV reform vote was a serious setback. On the other hand, he acted successfully several times against the liberal foreign minister Ignazio Cassis (61), who works listlessly on the European dossier and recently caused misunderstanding in the world with his headscarf diplomacy in Iran.

The great crisis follows

The year 2020 was fateful for Berset as the pandemic reached Switzerland. As Minister of Health, he guided the nation through the historic crisis, his popularity skyrocketed, the former politician with glasses and residual hair became Borsalino-Berset. He liked to show himself with a hat in the pose of the down-to-earth father of the country.

That much wind is poison for one of such pronounced vanity. In his first year as president, he had two volumes of photos produced about himself and, as a Covid warrior, made himself available for an entire book of interviews with a “NZZ” journalist. Berset increasingly acquired the image of a bourgeois and bon vivant, he increasingly resembled the type of left-wing top French politician who advocates for the proletariat in his speeches, but prefers to hang out in a gastronomic temple than in a working-class pub.

This development widened the rift with his party and its trade union wing, the many affairs not helping. The “Weltwoche” revealed the extortion attempt of a former lover, the view revealed how the health minister in his hometown is campaigning against a 5G antenna as the federal government continues to expand this network, and in June 2022 its media chief left the department after it was revealed that during the pandemic he allegedly provided confidential information from the Bundesrat to the media – namely the head of Ringier-Verlag, which also publishes the Sunday newspaper. The corporate audit committee is currently investigating whether Berset was aware of the indiscretions.

Berset’s private flight into French airspace, which had been terminated by fighter jets, became a carnival theme. He did his comrades a disservice with their environmental policies.

Is Meyers and Wermuth’s public correction of Berset’s arms vote early in the week now a signal for the imminent departure of the dazzling magistrate with the parlor socialist paint?

In the vicinity of his ward one softens; In his interviews, the boss only reflected the attitude of the Federal Council, which is against indirect arms because of the neutrality law. Yet the opponents sharpen their knives. For the Green Liberals, the SP is overrepresented in the Bundesrat anyway and the question is already circulating among the Greens who has what it takes to be a candidate. In any case, party leader Balthasar Glättli (51) no longer believes anyone who denies his ambitions. It is said that he often speaks French during his appearances to appear statesman.

Ruth Lüthi does not want to speculate about a possible departure. Six months ago she would have ruled that out completely, she says. “But I could understand it if he said at the end of the year, ‘I’ve done my job.'”

Source:Blick