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Canton of Valais Council of States – Rieder and Maret put Nantermod in its place – News

12 November 2023

Contents

The two Council of States seats remain firmly in the hands of the center. Philippe Nantermod clearly missed the surprise.

Beat Rieder and Marianne Maret – these are still the names of the two Valais councilors. The results from the Lower Valais cities of Sitten and Martigny are still missing. But it is already clear: Philippe Nantermod (FDP) can no longer catch up with Rieder and Maret, both from the center. At over 20,000 votes, the gap is simply too big.

In the first round of voting, Philippe Nantermod remained over 18,000 votes behind Maret and over 27,000 votes behind Rieder. “I don’t promise you victory, I promise you the fight,” said Nantermod at the time, before his party’s decision to send him back into the race for the second round of voting.

Rieder as favorite

The previous Beat Rieder narrowly missed the absolute majority in the first round with over 52,000 votes. His party colleague Marianne Maret, also a previous member, achieved a solid result with over 43,000 votes.

Both the Greens and the SP have refrained from recommending an election for the second round. Both parties have called on their supporters to “vote in accordance with their values”. Marianne Maret, who, in contrast to Rieder and Nantermod, politicizes to the left of the center, is likely to benefit from this.

The two seats in the Valais Council of States have been firmly in the hands of the center for 166 years. It is the strongest political force in the canton – with a voter share of over 35 percent in the National Council elections.

For years, parties from left to right have been trying to break the dual representation of the center. All attempts have so far been unsuccessful. In 2019, Mathias Reynard (SP) was only 1,370 votes short of the sensation, and in 2015, Pierre-Alain Grichting (FDP) missed the election by 1,481 votes.

The SVP is divided. While their Upper Valais section supported Nantermod, the French-speaking section did not want to make an election recommendation. She disliked the FDP politician’s positions during the corona pandemic. The Green Liberals have refrained from recommending an election.