Content
When you take on an important office in the Swiss People’s Party, you also receive a commission. This is how SVP doyen Christoph Blocher coined it, and this is how it is still lived today. In 2020, the Ticino Council of States member Marco Chiesa, who was hardly known in German-speaking Switzerland at the time, was given the task of bringing the party forward again.
Due to the defeat in the 2019 national elections, Albert Rösti, now a Federal Councilor, resigned as party president. However, the search for a successor was difficult. And the few candidates, such as Zurich National Councilor Alfred Heer, did not suit the overlord Christoph Blocher. So the choice fell on Chiesa, who is also said to be good friends with Blocher’s daughter Magdalena Martullo. Hardly anyone expected Chiesa back then.
Chiesa had success in Ticino
“Marco who?” asked quite a few people from under the Federal Palace dome. But Chiesa had brought the SVP in Ticino into shape and was the first Ticino SVP representative to join the Council of States. Chiesa was considered a winner. With his Ticino charm, many saw a new Toni Brunner in him. Chiesa has now been given the task of winning the 2023 elections. And judging by this order, it can be said: Marco Chiesa has fulfilled the order. The party achieved its third best result in history in October.
Chiesa had a strong presence outside his home canton, especially in western Switzerland. Chiesa, who studied in Freiburg, speaks perfect French and regularly takes part in major TV debates and interviews in French-speaking Switzerland – that was apparently well received. In French-speaking Switzerland and Ticino, the SVP made even more significant gains in the October elections than in German-speaking Switzerland. Mission fulfilled, especially in Latin Switzerland.
Mixed balance in German-speaking Switzerland
However, the balance of Marco Chiesa’s work in German-speaking Switzerland is more mixed. Chiesa, who until recently found it difficult to hold public debates in German, had little presence. He also often remained a bit aloof. Chiesa did not become a second Toni Brunner, as the party had hoped. It had few contours, but also offered hardly any areas of attack. Chiesa left the field to other well-known party figures. Group leader Thomas Aeschi. National Councilor Magdalena Martullo. Or campaign manager Marcel Dettling.
In fact, the party leadership was divided among different shoulders. This worked surprisingly well. The SVP became the first national party that could set issues even without a permanent party president. In Chiesa’s era, the party program became even more important, and the heads faded into the background.
Dettling could be favorite
And yet in German-speaking Switzerland, the heart of the SVP, there was increasingly a lack of a personality at the top to set the course. Doyen Christoph Blocher repeatedly intervened, most recently in the Federal Council elections. Chiesa often remained silent. Other party leaders, not Marco Chiesa, are responsible for the successes in German-speaking Switzerland. So the mission wasn’t quite fulfilled.
We hear from the party that they now want to see someone with charisma at the top again. Someone from German-speaking Switzerland. There should be one personality for the program, and not a different one for each dossier. Many see Marcel Dettling as the crown favorite. As campaign manager, the Schwyz farmer and National Councilor stands for the success of the SVP in German-speaking Switzerland. If Dettling accepts, he could next receive a major contract from the People’s Party.