Swiss Green Party elects new president
Lisa Mazzone has been unanimously elected as the new president of the Green Party in Switzerland.
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The 36-year-old said she never intended to quit politics after being voted out of the Senate in the autumn. Withdrawing from the world “to tend to your own garden” is not an option, she said on accepting her new role with the Green Party.
The Greens need to be at the centre of the public debate more than ever, Mazzone added in her speech. The climate crisis is a crisis of solidarity – a crisis of solidarity with future generations and with the global south. “Those who feel the consequences of climate change particularly strongly have hardly ever benefited from the use of fossil fuels,” she said.
She wants to both defend achievements and realise a “profound change”. It is the work of the Greens to bring together the progressive forces of change and shape Switzerland, said the new president.
After a stellar career, the political talent Mazzone suffered a bitter defeat in October last year when her Senate seat was taken.
Out of disappointment, she initially announced that she would be withdrawing from politics. But at the end of January, Mazzone announced that she was running for the vacant position of Green Party president. No competitors stood in her way.
Mazzone is now unusually a president of a political party who does not hold a parliamentary seat.
Mazzone succeeds Balthasar Glättli, who announced his resignation in November following the party’s electoral defeat, losing 3.4% of vote share in the federal elections.
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Adapted from German by DeepL/mga
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