The GLP loses business support

The Zurich GLP sees itself as an ecological and at the same time business-friendly party. In your party manifesto she stands for a lean state and for low taxes, for austerity measures and for economic freedom. The party may be green, but it is also liberal. At least that’s how she sees herself.

But does this also correspond to reality? At least one important voice in Zurich’s economy harbors serious doubts about the liberal political orientation of the GLP: the Zurich Forum. This is a loose association of business-related Zurich associations. The list goes from the ACS to the trade association to the chamber of commerce.

On Friday, the forum publicly broke with the Green Liberals in a media release. The organization wrote that it was “irritated, shocked and disappointed” by the Zurich GLP’s leftward slide. “The ‘G’ gains the upper hand, with the ‘L’ the paint is off.”

The trigger for the indignation was that the GLP for the next cantonal elections in February 2023 with the SP, the Greens, the AL and the EPP alliance has been received. The five parties act as a “climate and progress alliance” and want to work together primarily on ecological and social issues.

Left converts in the GLP

Actually, says Robert Gubler, the chairman of the Zurich Forum, there was an exchange with the GLP about in-depth thematic cooperation on issues relating to Zurich as a business and research location. But with its clearly left-wing positioning, the GLP has now brusquely ended these talks.

“We have already heard signals from the leading heads of the GLP that they want to lend a hand for economically sensible solutions, for example in energy policy or air traffic,” says Gubler. But apparently the base thinks differently. Gubler suspects that the course of the GLP is largely controlled by converts from left-wing parties.

It is not the first time that the Zurich Forum and the GLP have clashed. In mid-September, the forum organized an election panel with the middle-class government council candidates – meaning the representatives of the FDP, SVP and Mitte. The GLP was not requested.

The duped Green Liberals responded with a critical open letter. There are very successful entrepreneurs in the canton who make investments and create jobs without being a member or voter of the SVP, FDP and Mitte.

So now the debate has reached the same point again: In the eyes of the economy, the GLP is not considered to be bourgeois, i.e. business-friendly.

“Scherrer has sold his liberal soul”

However, the proximity of the GLP to the left-green parties is not quite as new and surprising as the Zurich Forum makes it out to be. In the city of Zurich, for example, the Green Liberals appeared together with the SP, the Greens, the AL and the EPP as a climate alliance in 2019. To this day, the parties work very well together, including on social issues. The most recent example: A GLP municipal councilor who wants to anchor the gender aspect in the structure plan finds broad support from Links-Grün.

In financial matters, however, the distance is greater. In the Zurich city parliament, for example, the GLP, together with the FDP and the SVP, voted against the purchase of the Üetlihof, a huge plot of land in the south-west of the city. The SP and parts of the Greens were in favor.

During the budget debate in the Zurich cantonal council last December, the GLP, together with the FDP, the SVP and the center, spoke out in favor of reducing the tax rate and thus helped the request to gain a majority. Here, too, the SP and the Greens were on the other side.

And when the canton of Zurich voted on an AL initiative to increase dividend taxation at the end of September, the GLP was against it because increasing the attractiveness of the location would be a shame. This also corresponded to the attitude of the FDP, SVP and Mitte.

But that’s not enough for the Zurich Forum. “It’s not just about financial policy,” says Gubler. He is also not convinced that Benno Scherrer, the Green Liberal government candidate, sells himself as pro-business and advocates lower taxes. “Scherrer is hoping for votes from the left-green alliance. So he sold his liberal soul,” says Gubler.

There are also differences within the party about the economic policy course of the Green Liberals. The watch entrepreneur Georges Kern, who is involved in the cantonal board of the Zurich GLP, has publicly demanded in the NZZ that the party should present itself in a more business-friendly manner. Kern was also the author of the open letter to the government council podium without GLP participation.

GLP does not form an alliance in the government council

Benno Scherrer says he takes note of the message from Forum Zurich. Above all, he is bothered by the fact that the commitment of the GLP in ecological issues is simply equated with a left-green, trade union-oriented economic policy.

Ecology and economy are two completely different fields. This is also recognized by other parties, says the Usterm cantonal council. For example, the Zurich FDP supported the new cantonal energy law, “and that’s why it’s not suddenly seen as left-wing green,” says Scherrer.

The attitude of the GLP in the tax rate debate and in the vote on increasing the partial taxation of dividends clearly shows that the GLP clearly differentiates itself from the SP, the Greens and the AL on financial policy issues. “We also had to take criticism from the left for our attitude towards the cantonal tax rate,” he says.

Scherrer emphasizes that the climate alliance is not an electoral alliance for the government council elections. “SP, Greens and AL form a team there, but of course we’re not there. My candidacy is independent.”

But none of this should be enough to bring about reconciliation with the Zurich business associations. Robert Gubler says the thread is broken, at least for the next elections. The forum will not support the GLP. But he leaves a door open. “It shouldn’t be up to us. If there are exponents at the GLP who are seriously committed to our concerns, then we are happy to extend our hands.»