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Green President Balthasar Glättli during his speech at the delegates’ meeting in Geneva.
Peter AeschlimannFederal house editor Sunday view
The Greens are in a dilemma. Your waiver of a fight candidacy after the resignations of Ueli Maurer (72, SVP) and Simonetta Sommaruga (62, SP) caused shaking of heads, not only among political opponents. Since then, the battle plan has been that they will stand after the 2023 elections – the time for a Green Federal Councilor is overripe.
The most promising tactic would now be an attack on Alain Berset’s SP seat (50). The Federal President is stricken, the Corona leaks are damaging his party. In the “Arena” said SP co-president Mattea Meyer (35): “Of course, the serious allegations do not help in the election campaign.”
Greens on the march
In 2019, the Greens increased by 6.1 percentage points to 13.2 percent. The SP reached 16.8 percent (-2). If the Greens performed similarly well in the federal elections on October 22 and the Social Democrats lost their feathers at the same time, a Green attack on an SP seat in the Bundesrat would be a conceivable scenario. That’s what leading party members of the Greens say, who do not want to be named. In any case, you will no longer be comforted. The base wanted the party to be represented in the government. If necessary, this could also be done at the expense of the SP.
However, the election barometer has what it takes to become the party killer of the Greens: like the SP, the high-flyer in the last election is also predicted to lose. Billing is only done in the fall, is the motto of the Greens. A lot can still happen before then. Will climate change hit with all its might – or will there be a rainy summer? How will the war in Ukraine continue, with inflation and high energy prices? The situation is completely unpredictable in an election year. This makes forecasts so difficult, not only for the Greens.
You are friendly
In a Blick interview last week, party president Balthasar Glättli (50) avoided the question of whether one would move into the Federal Council at the expense of the SP: “All the main forces should be represented in the Federal Council – and we are part of that.”
So before the elections, stay friendly. Even at yesterday’s delegates’ meeting in Geneva, nobody wanted to get in the way of the sister party SP. One would rather dream of a perfect red-green world. In this, the SP would have two seats in the Bundesrat and the Greens one. Under no circumstances should the impression be created that one is profiting from the affair surrounding the indiscretions from Berset’s interior department. Glättli says: “Cynicism is hardly the right reaction to such a shaking of the institutions.” He simply hopes that all parties in the Federal Council will eventually realize that the government has to work. “We really have no shortage of crises that need to be overcome.”