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Getting a law through can take years. But right now it’s going really fast. Parliament passed an energy law in just a few weeks. This raises fundamental questions.
When one of the most prominent construction and environmental lawyers in Switzerland expresses himself in this way, you should listen carefully: “Parliament seems to have gotten completely out of control at the moment. It seems to me that fantasies of omnipotence are building up in Parliament: ‘We can actually do everything. That means we can violate the constitution. A little isn’t so bad’.”
Parliament seems to have gotten completely out of control.
That says Alain Griffel, a professor at the University of Zurich. He criticizes the fact that Parliament is violating several constitutional provisions with the law for the rapid implementation of new power generation plants. “In my view, the most important thing is that the legislature now wants to write a fundamental priority for certain interests in the law.”
Priority to environmental protection
Parliament decided this week that the implementation of these projects has priority over environmental protection with regard to the two planned large-scale photovoltaic systems in the Valais Alps. But that is not compatible with the constitution.
Second point: Parliament has also written into law that there is no longer any planning obligation for the two high-alpine photovoltaic systems. Parliament is thus also interfering with the constitutional sovereignty of the cantons. Both conflict with the constitution.
The question that needs to be asked clearly is: What is the objective urgency?
Finally, Griffel criticizes the fact that Parliament wants to declare the new law urgent. “The question that needs to be clarified would be: What is the objective urgency that does not allow waiting for a 100-day referendum deadline and a conspicuous referendum?”
State political damage
Griffel sees no reason for this urgency. In this case, Parliament would also have to present the law to the people, which it does not do. The law professor is stunned by Parliament’s work: “Insane! It’s really unbelievable.”
If you had called him a few months ago, described the scenario to him and asked him: Do you think that’s possible in Switzerland? “I would have said straight out: absolutely impossible. We are still a well-functioning constitutional state; a constitutional state. Parliament takes its role as guardian of the constitution seriously.”
Round table as an alternative
Unfortunately, he can no longer say that today. Conclusion: Alain Griffel sees a national political crop damage. And with the new law, Parliament is also creating a non-starter. The quick shot raises numerous new legal questions that need to be clarified and which are likely to make the whole thing much more complicated.
On Friday, the new law comes to the final vote again in the councils. As an alternative, Griffel sees only one way: pushing energy projects forward together in tedious compromise work at round tables and then following through with normal procedures.