1/5
SVP Federal Councilor Albert Rösti has taken over the energy department.
Danny SmurfEditor Sunday view
Federal Councilor Albert Rösti (55) has made his choice. Yves Bichsel (51) will be the new Secretary General in the Energy Department. Bichsel already knows the federal administration: from 2006 to 2007 he was deputy general secretary to the then Minister of Justice Christoph Blocher (82), in 2009 he became Ueli Maurer’s (72) chief of staff in the Ministry of Finance.
In 2016, the newly elected SVP government councilor Pierre Alain Schnegg (60) brought him to the health department of the canton of Bern as Secretary General. Schnegg and Bichsel not only share the party affiliation, but also the proximity to the free church milieu.
In terms of content, Bichsel stands for classic SVP positions. But how exactly does the doctorate chemist work?
God-faithful «Chrampfer»
He was “a shrimp,” says the Bernese SP councilor Ursula Zybach (55), a member of the health and social commission. “He is a dossier fast thinker, a top cast in the front office.” Accordingly, the duo Schnegg and Bichsel go to work with determination, motivated by a religious image of humanity: “Both are convinced that everyone can help themselves if they really want it with God’s help.”
True to this logic, Schnegg and Bichsel tried in 2019 to cut social assistance in the canton of Bern by up to 30 percent. It should have been the prelude to nationwide cuts. “Bichsel was the driving force,” says a Bernese councillor. “He wanted to tighten the social system across the country.” But the attempt failed in Bern. The people rejected the request.
Bichsel’s diligence should be appreciated
Bichsel not only stands for strict content, says the councilor, but also for hard methods: “The Bernese health department ignores relevant actors and is happy to omit unpleasant consultations. This idiosyncratic approach to democratic procedures bears Bichsel’s signature.”
Stéphane Beuchat (47), as co-director of Avenirsocial, the professional association for social work in Switzerland, fought against the revision of the Social Welfare Act in the canton of Bern. The health department is acting unprofessionally, he says. “It regularly operates with decisions that are communicated unilaterally, without taking the rules of participation into account. There can be no talk of a conciliatory attitude.”
Bichsel’s diligence should also be appreciated at his new place of work. There, however, he must work with officials from the Sommaruga era, who do not always share his views. And consultations are not to be trifled with in federal politics: the estates jealously guard their right to have a say – including the canton of Bern.