How many bans can the party, which wants to help govern a free country with self-determined people, actually allow itself?
For the Greens, catering is part of the political program.
This story is not about the Christian Quadragesima, the 40 days of Lent before Easter. Nor about the fasting month of Ramadan, which Muslims celebrate. It’s about party-internal dietary regulations for the Geneva Greens. In the future, their members should abstain from elections to the cantonal or government council. No meat if you have to feed yourself as part of the performance of your duties. A waiver that made headlines across Switzerland and even split the party that spoke out in favor of political fasting.
Mazzone: Don’t rule out meat eaters
This happened at the party congress a week ago. All candidates standing for next year’s cantonal elections have to sign a common charter, a kind of code of conduct, political collective labor agreement and creed all rolled into one. For example, every person elected commits to eating vegetarian food when traveling on behalf of the party, for example at official meals and aperitifs. The delegates approved the passage by 53 votes to 45, with 16 abstentions.
The rather narrow result, however, is an expression of an inner uneasiness that grows stronger as the party’s success increases. Or: How many bans can the party that wants to help govern a free country with self-determined people actually allow themselves? “If you eat meat as a Green, you will be set on fire – and if you don’t do it, it’s not right either,” says party president Balthasar Glättli to “Blick”. In doing so, he indirectly describes the dilemma of a principled movement that finally wants to get into the Federal Council. And power in Switzerland always means compromise, consensus, a bit of self-abandonment in the search for majorities.
Lisa Mazzone is also struggling with her cantonal party’s ban on animal protein. “Every time the candidates were at an event, they would be forced to address this promise of waiver and make a political statement. That can be counterproductive, »says the Geneva Councilor of States in the same place. According to Mazzone, the aim of the Greens must be to get people excited about an environmentally friendly lifestyle, not to exclude non-vegetarians.
The appeasements of the Councilor of States are clever in terms of election tactics. After decades of decline, the annual per capita consumption of the Swiss is on the rise again, in 2021 it was 51.8 kilograms. Too much for the “Tages-Anzeiger”, which is calling on the federal government to stop funding Swiss farmers and Swiss meat immediately – for the sake of the climate.
The Bafu is in no way inferior to the Greens
Well, you can accuse the state of a lot, but certainly not that it doesn’t care enough about sustainable food for its citizens. A corresponding leaflet, which the Federal Office for the Environment (FOEN) published in 2019 and which is intended to help Mr. and Mrs. Schweizer to organize “environmentally friendly” aperitifs, is in no way inferior to the charter of the Geneva Greens. It describes with bureaucratic precision that a buffet should consist of “at least” two-thirds vegetarian products. And that vegetarianism should be the top priority.
A document that consists of a total of fourteen leaflets and which also comes from the Bafu kitchen goes even further. Here, the people in charge of daycare, school and retirement home canteens – usually well-trained specialists – are recommended that animal products should be offered “at most” two to three times a week, that 120 grams of meat per portion is sufficient and that the The price of vegetarian dishes should be set lower than for menus with meat. Where once the food pyramid in the classic textbook “Tiptopf” was sufficient to understand the principles of a balanced diet, legions of state-paid specialists have long been needed.
It was very different in 2000. The Green National Councilor Anne-Catherine Menétrey-Savary complained at the time that the official recommendations for a healthy diet made no mention of vegetarianism “not a syllable”. “That’s why I’m asking the Federal Council: Is it ready to revise its recommendations and take a more differentiated stance towards food of animal origin and to recognize vegetarianism as a healthy diet?” The Federal Council responded with a “vegetarianism working group” to review scientific data on “this diet”.
At that time, the Greens had around 5 percent of the electorate, today there are over 13, and the trend is rising. At the same time, the kitchen and refrigerator have long since become political battle zones. You no longer eat what you are, but what you would like to be: sustainable, environmentally friendly, natural. In view of the growing branch of official consultants in Berne, the Calvinist zeal of the Greens seems almost sympathetic again, at least it is consistent. In Geneva they don’t want to preach tap water and drink organic wine. And finally, no one is forced to join the Greens.
No alcohol ban
But the story isn’t quite over yet. While representatives of the majority are happy about the decision, the defeated are shocked by the “religious order”. It is quite possible that the culinary realos will still overrule the fundis. At least the party president has already announced that she will discuss the passage again at the next meeting in June. She promises that the regulation will be relaxed, the debate about it is more important than the final dietary regulation.
After all, the Geneva Greens agreed on another point in the charter. A ban on alcohol for officials, which had also been demanded, was rejected by a large majority. Environmental and climate protection also has its limits somewhere.