Junge Mitte calls for negotiations with the EU before the elections Fireworks fired at a police officer: arrest in Basel

The Mitte party was the first to open the election year on Friday with the traditional Epiphany talks in Bern. She did so with some optimism. The merger of the CVP and the BDP went smoothly and the results of the cantonal elections make party chairman Gerhard Pfister optimistic about 22 October.

The relationship between Switzerland and the European Union, on the other hand, is anything but smooth. Both parties are in exploratory talks, but there is no sign of a restart after the collapse of the framework agreement. For Marc Rüdisüli, chairman of the Junge Mitte, this “neither fish nor bird situation” is untenable.

Switzerland must “refocus more on our partners in the EU and finally make progress here and strive for binding solutions,” demanded the 24-year-old from Thurgau in his presentation. Marc Rüdisüli explicitly mentioned an electricity deal. This requires “final progress in the exploratory talks”.

Pfister reacts cautiously

Specifically, Junge Mitte’s president “demanded that the Federal Council approve a new negotiating mandate before the election”. This hardly corresponds to the Swiss political mainstream, which embodies its parent party in an exemplary manner. In Bern, it is believed that the Bundesrat wants to postpone the delicate decision until the elections.

When journalists asked him about Rüdisüli’s demand, party leader Gerhard Pfister responded cautiously: “It is the task of a young party to give steam to the mother party,” said the Zug National Council. The consultations with Brussels could of course not last indefinitely, but had to be intensified for the time being.

agreement between the social partners

At home, there must be a consensus between the social partners on how to protect wages and social security. That was “demanding,” Pfister warned. He pointed out that the framework agreement had failed, among other things, because of a negotiating mandate with “red lines that were too strong”.

De Zuger did not mention that he himself had drawn such a line when he described the role of the European Court of Justice (CJEU) in the draft treaty as “toxic” in an interview. In doing so, he is contributing to the decision of the Bundesrat to end negotiations with the EU unilaterally and without a parliamentary decision.

Business associations are silent

Now Gerhard Pfister seems to be looking for a way out of the impasse into which he had maneuvered himself. He cannot afford much criticism of his fellow party members. During the Epiphany Talk, he proudly pointed out that the Junge Mitte group had “the largest increase in membership of any young party.”

Marc Rüdisüli’s move should strengthen pro-European forces in the party. But one should not hope too much. Also on Epiphany, the large business associations (including the farmers’ association) launched the election year with the everyday slogan “Perspectives instead of wishful thinking”. European policy was not discussed at all at the event in Bern.