A three-way ticket with at least two women: the soon to be 68-year-old from Solothurn wants to calm the minds of the comrades.
When asked about their currently most discussed member, Daniel Jositsch, the SP Zurich currently only gives a standard answer.
These are good days for Roger Nordmann and Pierre-Yves Maillard. In the foreseeable future one of them will become a member of the Federal Council, at least their chances are increasing exponentially these days. Even if the SP Federal Councilor Alain Berset, who has been in office for ten years, were to add one and a half legislatures, both national councilors would still be possible to succeed him. Nordmann (49 years old today) and Maillard (54 years) belong to the slightly older white men who are not so badly off, to that social group that SP National Councilor Tamara Funiciello declared war on after losing the AHV vote. But: Nordmann and Maillard are French men – and since almost all French-speaking Swiss have already waved their hands, next time it will be the turn of the male Romands.
Jositsch communicates on Tuesday
For Daniel Jositsch, the party leadership’s proposal to present only women as successors to Federal Councilor Simonetta Sommaruga could mean political deadlock. The Zurich Council of States is not in the wrong place at the wrong time, on the contrary. After Ueli Maurer’s resignation, he could hold up the flag of the country’s most important business location in the Bundesrat. “Desperate Dani”, as he is now called in the federal Bern, has the wrong gender at the wrong time. On Tuesday he wants to inform the public about his next steps, a short verbal explanation is expected. Exactly what he will say remains unclear.
Either he thanks you for your interest and buries his personal ambitions (whereas you can easily do that today via Twitter and Co.). Or he sticks to his previous position and recommends himself to his parliamentary group as a candidate for the Federal Council. Then the only question left would be whether he would go on tutti, even if the comrades in the Federal Palace did not put him on the official candidate ticket.
The SP of the canton of Zurich reacts with a standard answer to questions about its currently most discussed member. You will comment on November 19th about possible candidacies. That is on a Saturday and a day after the parliamentary group decided on the composition of the ticket. The registration deadline is the following Monday afternoon. It’s going to be a stressful two weeks for the comrades, especially since the field of candidates has shrunk to not quite a handful of women in the meantime. The Bernese National Councilor Flavia Wasserfallen, the Basel City Councilor Eva Herzog and the Bernese Government Councilor Evi Allemann remain. Elisabeth Baum-Schneider, Councilor from Jura, hasn’t made a decision yet either.
In the meantime, nobody in the SP doubts the wish and will of the party leadership that the party should continue to be represented by one man and one woman in the Bundesrat. However, the binary solution conflicts with the requirement of the constitution, according to which the state and language regions should be “appropriately” represented in the Federal Council. This SP matrix, which has existed and varied within the magic formula since Ruth Dreifuss and Moritz Leuenberger, is now facing a stress test because gender is now the only (exclusion) criterion. With Gabriela Suter and Franziska Roth, two SP national councilors have already spoken out who are bothered by this well-intentioned sexism. “I find the fixation on a purely women’s ticket democratic and strategically clumsy,” said Roth in the “Sonntags-Zeitung”. Suter says that the SP world will not perish if, exceptionally, two SP men sit in the government during a transitional period.
It is difficult to assess whether the criticism of the two women is representative of the mood in the group. Many do not want to comment or not to be quoted. There are also parliamentarians who usually put their fists in the sack because they don’t want to disavow the party leadership a year before the delicate parliamentary elections. And then there are voices that scold.
It is “a shame” that Roth and Suter expressed their criticism through the media and did not seek a conversation “within the family”, says Geneva Councilor of States Carlo Sommaruga. And Sommaruga is also dissatisfied with the media. “It doesn’t matter how the SP proceeds and how it decides: the NZZ will always find something to rub our noses in.” Sommaruga insists on being quoted accordingly. He still admits a small maneuver criticism. The party leadership could have communicated their proposal more flexibly and at the same time pointed out that the clear goal was two candidates, says Sommaruga. “It is unfortunate that everyone is now only talking about the party’s actions and less about the qualifications of the potential candidates and the importance of the SP’s socio-political role in the Federal Council.”
Zanetti: «Everything grown people»
The contrast program for the overheated minds within the SP and all around delivers Roberto Zanetti. The Solothurn Council of States has a pragmatic counter-proposal at hand: “We could propose a three-way ticket, which must have at least two women and at least two candidates from German-speaking Switzerland.” Zanetti shows understanding for the party leadership, which wants to signal strength of leadership with the dedicated proposal. But the parliamentary group consists of nothing but grown-up people who would have thought about it themselves and possibly come to the same conclusion, namely that one naturally wants to stick to the balanced gender representation in the SP federal councillors. “I don’t like being told how to think about things. But maybe that also has something to do with my age,” laughs the soon to be 68-year-old, who certainly no longer wants to be a member of the Federal Council. Zanetti resigns at the end of the legislature.
