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SVP boss Marco Chiesa can draw strength in his hometown of Lugano. He has a busy year ahead of him.
The center of Lugano TI is colorful. SVP boss Marco Chiesa (48) leads the Blick journalists through his hometown. This is where he has his network, this is where he draws strength. He emphasizes how important this homeland is to him with a meal of polenta in a rustic grotto. The Council of States is facing a busy year. The Council of States is facing a busy year. He has been leading the SVP for two and a half years – and the federal elections in October will put him to the test. The party wants to grow significantly after losing a whopping 3.8 percent in 2019 with 25.6 percent.
Blick: Mr. Chiesa, the SVP was the big loser in 2019. If the party loses voters again, you can resign right away.
Marco Chiesa: As an election winner I can take my hat off, as a loser I have to (laughs). But I don’t intend to lose. We got off to a good start in the election year – the SVP is in top form and takes care of the issues that people are passionate about. This is shown by the referendum against the mendacious and expensive climate protection law. In just 90 days we collected over 100,000 signatures – more than twice as many as would be necessary.
Still, how do you make up for the losses?
In 2019 we lost over 100,000 voters. We want to win them back. It is crucial that we mobilize our base. We are focusing on the issues of energy, immigration and neutrality – Switzerland is in a crisis on all of these issues.
Win back 100,000 voters? Is your electoral goal to reach the 29.4 percent of 2015 again?
Whether it is 28, 29 or 30 percent depends on the voter turnout. Our goal is clear: we want to bring 100,000 additional SVP voters to the ballot box. In 2019, many did not go to the polls because they were frustrated that our voting successes with the mass immigration or deportation initiatives were not implemented by the centre-left parliament. With the successful referendum against the climate protection law, we have shown that mobilization is possible. I am confident that we can win back the middle-class majority in the National Council.
Parliament is deeply bourgeois.
In the SME rating of the trade association, the first representative of the center comes in at 85th place. This shows that the center parties are not reliable enough for middle-class politics. In addition to the SVP, the FDP in particular stands by bourgeois values.
That means?
It needs list connections with the FDP in as many cantons as possible. In 2019 we lost eight seats because we had too few list connections with the liberals. Now we are having open discussions. The ball is in Freisinn’s hands. He is responsible for whether there is a clear middle-class majority or whether we simply leave these seats to the Left-Greens.
“It needs a new generation of SVP politicians”SVP President Marco Chiesa
Even if there were an SVP-FDP majority in the National Council, the SVP is weak in the Council of States. In cantons such as Aargau or Schwyz, there is a risk of losing seats. How do you intend to change that?
Major elections are becoming increasingly difficult. This requires a new generation of SVP politicians. Personalities who can also convince other parties.
Those who are braver and more willing to compromise?
No, our people must continue to represent our values consistently, but they must also be able to create majorities. As with the AHV. If reforms are needed, we need better cooperation. But that is not easy for a prominent party that speaks plain language.
In the election year, you are relying on old hat. Once again you want to restrict immigration.
This is what Switzerland needs! The Schengen-Dublin asylum system has failed, the external borders are not controlled, and Italy refuses to take back asylum migrants. Here we have to say stop unequivocally, otherwise we will drive our country to the wall.
Last year we again had over 20,000 asylum applications, but far fewer than during the refugee crisis. In addition, applications are processed more quickly. The crisis is not that acute yet.
It’s not just about asylum migrants, but also about refugees from Ukraine and the free movement of people. In 2022 we had more than 200,000 immigrants in one year. The numbers of illegal arrivals of asylum migrants are exploding: last year more than 52,000 illegal immigrants entered our country. This is a ticking time bomb! We see that in the riots in Germany and France. The welcome culture has failed. In Switzerland, too, we are heading towards a huge integration problem.
Is that why you want to detain asylum seekers in Rwanda?
We can look after asylum seekers in other safe countries, as Denmark or the UK are planning to do. We must have this courage. Instead, there is a huge moralizing that asylum seekers are not sufficiently financed and integrated. Only the criminal trafficking gangs and the asylum industry in the country benefit from the current situation
Switzerland.
The SVP is planning a new immigration initiative for this. The text is still not available. Is your party divided?
We know what we want and the instruments are clearly stated in the constitution: maximum numbers, quotas and priority for nationals. However, the centre-left majority in Parliament has not implemented the constitutional mandate. A referendum is needed for this. We have to ask ourselves whether we want to live in a Switzerland of 10 million. Certainly not me!
The SVP also manages the energy issue. Now you have to deliver with your new energy minister, Albert Rösti.
We asked for a power general and got this with hash browns.
What do you specifically expect?
I expect a correction of the failed energy transition. We need short, medium and long-term measures to secure the energy supply in Switzerland. This is the main order. Rösti is already examining entrepreneur Markus Blocher’s emergency power plan, which requires companies to use their emergency power systems in the short term.
“We must abolish the nuclear power plant ban”SVP President Marco Chiesa
And in the long term he should build new nuclear power plants?
Two-thirds of our energy consumption is oil, petrol, diesel and gas. If you want to replace them, you need new nuclear power plants. If we shut down our nuclear power plants, then we have a catastrophe. Without electricity, everything comes to a standstill: from the hospital to the stove at home.
Then Rösti should become a solar general after all!
I have nothing against the expansion of solar energy. But it’s no use in the
winter months, when we already have too little electricity. It also needs more hydropower and the replacement of existing nuclear power plants. With the Energy Strategy 2050, we were fooled into believing that we could do without nuclear power plants. Now we see, this is an illusion. It is imperative that we abolish the nuclear power plant ban. I prefer nuclear power plants to CO2-Sling. Here I agree with Greta Thunberg!
Ironically, Greta Thunberg becomes the key witness of the SVP?
If, for once, she says something sensible, I’m happy to agree with her.
That remains a sham debate because replacing nuclear power plants would take decades.
That’s an excuse! With new technologies things can happen very quickly. And it doesn’t have to be new, large-scale systems. Several smaller and decentralized nuclear power plants are conceivable. Roesti needs to check this option or we’re heading for a huge power outage.
A mini nuclear power plant for each canton?
Some cantons have enough hydroelectric power, they don’t need it. But we certainly have to invest in this direction. Because we have an energy requirement of 200 terawatt hours – two thirds of which are fossil today. Reach net zero by 2050 and switch off all nuclear power plants at the same time? The bill doesn’t add up!
And why does the SVP not support Climate General Rösti? Instead of supporting him, you are torpedoing the climate targets by referendum.
You have to keep relationships. Switzerland is only responsible for 0.1 percent of CO2-Emissions responsible worldwide. Since 1990 we have even saved more than 30 percent per capita. But the massive immigration is destroying all climate steps. The Left and the Greens give no answer to this contradiction.
You dodge! Once again, the SVP does not want to do anything for climate protection.
We are not fighting against climate protection, but against higher taxes and costs. If the mendacious and expensive climate protection law comes through, oil and gas heating will be banned, as will cars with combustion engines. At the same time, we need more electricity. This power guzzler law is nonsense.
The SVP boss
In August 2020, Marco Chiesa (48) from Ticino was elected SVP boss. His political career began in Lugano TI, led him to the Ticino Grand Council in 2007 and to the National Council in 2015. Four years later he became a member of the Council of States. The business graduate used to run a retirement home and is now a partner in the trust and consulting company Ticiconsult Sagl. Chiesa lives in Ruvigliana TI near Lugano, is married and has two children.
In August 2020, Marco Chiesa (48) from Ticino was elected SVP boss. His political career began in Lugano TI, led him to the Ticino Grand Council in 2007 and to the National Council in 2015. Four years later he became a member of the Council of States. The business graduate used to run a retirement home and is now a partner in the trust and consulting company Ticiconsult Sagl. Chiesa lives in Ruvigliana TI near Lugano, is married and has two children.
Change of subject: Have you already written a thank you letter to Ignazio Cassis?
Why should I?
In the election year, he wants to re-launch the EU framework agreement.
Of course, this is an opportunity for my party to raise its profile. But first I think of our country! So I hope that a framework agreement will never come up again. But when I look at the EU turbochargers of the other parties in Parliament, I fear that not only will a new framework agreement become an issue, but that our neutrality will be destroyed even more.
Conversely, the bilateral agreements are coming under increasing pressure. There needs to be a solution.
I will not be guided by such rhetoric. We have a free trade agreement and bilateral agreements. We buy more from the EU than they buy from us. We have 400,000 cross-border commuters. We have the NEAT. The EU benefits from us. We have to bring in arguments like this – and certainly not capitulate.
You keep insisting on neutrality. In the case of the Ukraine war, however, that means nothing more for you than taking Putin’s side.
No, we side with the safety of our people. Also of good offices. But the Federal Council is preventing this with its policy by taking sides with sanctions for one side.
The neutrality initiative from circles close to the SVP is nothing more than an initiative of cowardice.
On the contrary: it is much more difficult to remain neutral than to take sides. You have to stay strong here if you want to help resolve conflicts. That is why this initiative is so important.
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