Green Party decides against targeting cabinet seat

Green Party President Balthasar Glättli and Green parliamentary group president Aline Trede explain their decision on Tuesday ©keystone/peter Schneider

The Green Party says it won’t make a move for the seat in Switzerland’s seven-person cabinet being made vacant by Finance Minister Ueli Maurer. It said it doesn't want to waste time playing a “rigged game”.

When Maurer, from the right-wing Swiss People’s Party, announced his retirement at the end of September, speculation quickly started about who would replace him. Parliament will elect his replacement on December 7.

Most of the talk has been about which People’s Party politicians will throw their hats into the ring, but some people also believed the time was right for Switzerland to have its first Green cabinet minister.

Immediately after Maurer’s announcement, the Green Party said it was time to make the cabinet more representative and that it would decide on October 18 whether to present a candidate for Maurer’s succession. On Tuesday the party said it “didn’t want to waste time” playing a “rigged game” with the other parties.

Party President Balthasar Glättli told the media in Bern that the Greens were not targeting the seat not because they were shying away from the challenge, “but because we are looking for real responsibility”.

The party, which in the 2019 parliamentary elections came fourth with 13.2% of the vote, has the wind in its sails and trusts in this wind, he said. “We’re setting sail for the 2023 climate election,” Glättli said.

Since 2019, the Greens have gained a fifth more members and won 52 additional seats in cantonal parliaments.

‘Power cartel’

Unfortunately, the power cartel in parliament had already decided what was going to happen, said parliamentary group president Aline Trede. The die had already been cast with Maurer’s resignation: all the other parties just want to hang on to their power, she said. And yet, since 2019, only 68% of the population has been represented in the cabinet, Trede said.

The seven seats in cabinet are currently divided among the People’s Party (two seats, 25.6% in the 2019 elections), the left-wing Social Democratic Party (two seats, 16.8%), the centre-right Radical-Liberals (two seats, 15.1%) and the Centre (one seat, the result of a merger last year between the Christian Democrats (11.4%) and the Conservative Democratic Party (2.4%)). Numerically the Greens have a stronger claim to a Radical-Liberal or Centre seat than a People’s Party seat.