Municipal 2025: The PS nominates Bertossa and Kitsos

• Meeting in a general assembly, the Socialist Party of the City of Geneva has appointed its outgoing magistrate Christina Kitsos and the municipal councilor Joëlle Bertossa for election to the Administrative Council in spring 2025.

• It took five rounds of voting to decide between the different candidates. The surprise of the evening came from Dorina Xhixho. Unelected, the personal advisor of the outgoing Sami Kanaan (who is not running) remained in the race for a long time. Her vote transfers ultimately favored the nomination of Joëlle Bertossa, giving rise to a 100% female ticket.

• The option of presenting three candidates was largely rejected by the assembly.

• The biggest force in the City of Geneva, the PS intends to maintain its two seats in the Executive. He is expected to form an alliance with the Greens, who will choose their candidates on June 18.

Yesterday, 11:34 p.m.

The general meeting ends. Thank you for following us and have a great evening everyone.

With 72 votes, municipal councilor Joëlle Bertossa was chosen by the general assembly of PS Ville to appear on the ticket alongside Christina Kitsos. Olivier Gurtner obtained 56 votes during this fifth round.

“I am extremely moved despite all the homeopathy capsules that I swallowed today,” responded Joëlle Bertossa, to strong applause. “I won’t disappoint you, I’ll stay tuned.”

In the fourth round of voting, Olivier Gurtner (53 votes) and Joëlle Bertossa (44 votes) are ahead of outsider Dorina Xhixho, narrowly eliminated (39 votes). The two expected favorites will therefore face each other in a fifth and final round.

Third round of voting. Albane Dunand Schlechten was eliminated, obtaining only 10 votes. Although still in the running, Ahmed Jama, who received 13 votes, chose to withdraw. He said he “gave his voting instructions” to those who supported him, without revealing either to the assembly or to the press who it was.

Who will benefit? Olivier Gurtner is still ahead with 43 votes, but his lead is not significant. Joëlle Bertossa follows with 37 votes. Dorina Xhixho, of whom several interlocutors report a big internal campaign, collected 35.

It will therefore be necessary to have a fourth, or even probably a fifth, round.

The second round of voting allows the leading trio to widen the gap. Olivier Gurtner grabs a few votes, going to 41 (for a majority fixed at 69 votes). Joëlle Bertossa and Dorina Xhixho follow with, respectively, 37 and 32 votes. The two municipal councilors were favorites, Sami Kanaan’s personal adviser created a surprise by remaining in the race.

The other candidates are now slightly behind, even if the dynamics of vote transfer can still change the situation. Ahmed Jama received 14 votes, Albane Dunand Schlechten 12. Fabrizio Michelis, 1 vote, was eliminated.

Yesterday, 9:57 p.m.

The outgoing magistrate is chosen in the first round of voting. She achieved a nice score of 109 votes (out of 136 ballots distributed).

Follows a trio composed of Olivier Gurtner (38 votes), Joëlle Bertossa (37 votes) and Dorina Xhixho (34 votes). Ahmed Jama received 29 votes, Albane Dunand Schlechten 15 and Fabrizio Michielis 3. No other candidate therefore obtained a majority, none was eliminated.

Yesterday, 9:20 p.m.

The vote to determine the number of people to present on the ticket is launched.

Only five voters (out of 128) are in favor of a three-person ticket and three abstain.

A very (very) large majority supports a two-candidate ticket. “This allows for an agreement with our Alternative partners,” underlined Manuel Zwyssig, co-president of the section.

Little twist of theater. Fabrizio Michielis, who announced his withdrawal at the start of the evening, finally reversed his decision. He takes the stage and explains the origin of his motivation. “I am running to show people that despite a handicap, we can do something,” says the man who suffers from a speech impediment. “It is not because we walk badly, speak badly, that we are different, that we should be denigrated,” he continues.

Specialist in finance and accounting, Fabrizio Michielis is the only one among the candidates not to read a speech. Which doesn’t stop him from making proposals. In terms of mobility, he notes that while “a big step has been taken for bicycles, pedestrians have not been given enough emphasis”. “If I am not elected, I will continue to defend the values ​​of the party,” he concludes.

Olivier Gurtner speaks. He is the first of the contenders to have opened the grand ball of socialist candidacies at the start of the year.

A member of the Asloca committee, he begins his speech by denouncing the maneuvers, in Bern, of the liberal right which “attacks tenants, sees our housing only as investments”. In the Canton, the right is “attacking the minimum wage or even dignified working conditions in the field of early childhood”.

The climate transition must happen, for Olivier Gurtner, through the greening of neighborhoods (and fighting against disparities), public transport, soft mobility (he is president of Pro Vélo Genève) and the establishment of 30 k/m in the city .

As head of communications at the Comédie, after working at the Grand Théâtre, Olivier Gurtner intends to support both major institutions and independent artists. “Culture excludes and humiliates those who do not have the codes. We must encourage, through mediation, the public who does not want or dare not come.”

He recalls the main challenge, beyond today’s nomination alongside Christina Kitsos: maintaining a left-wing majority in the Municipality of the City of Geneva.

President of the Municipal Council during the 2020-2021 legislative year, Albane Schlechten begins her speech by emphasizing her desire to fight against inequalities. “Gender, sexual orientation, possibility of moving in public space,” she lists. She intends to fight for a society based more on “dialogue”, highlighting her “empathy” and her “strength of conviction”.

Coming from alternative backgrounds, Albane Dunand Schlechten would like a more “participatory” and accessible city. “The spectrum of people we can reach is not increasing,” she observes. And to formulate some ideas: send ambassadors to different communities, or create meeting spaces in neighborhoods. This young mother suggests taking advantage of rental properties, these places belonging to the City, by making them available to families. “Les Halles de l’île should be the most popular brasserie in the city,” she says.

It’s the turn of Joëlle Bertossa, who runs her own film production company. Until recently, she was co-president of the City of Geneva section of the party.

The candidate for candidacy indicates that she wants to prioritize families and young people, providing particular support to seniors, the revaluation of care professions, but also on measures surrounding global warming. Joëlle Bertossa judges the City to be “lagging behind” in the sanitation of its buildings, in particular, and suggests setting up an upstream consultation system dedicated to renovation projects, in order to avoid blockages and appeals.

She recalls her career in cultural circles (and obtaining a César) but insists on her interest in Finance: “Frédérique Perler’s decision not to run reshuffles the cards,” she slips. She highlights his work ethic. She states several times that she will fight “with dynamism, courage and without blinking”.

He is the outsider of this internal campaign. Dorina Xhixho is the only candidate not serving on the City Council. Current advisor to the outgoing magistrate Sami Kanaan, this Swiss and Albanian dual national highlights her career in international Geneva, where she was notably able to hone her “negotiator skills” in the mysteries of the UN Human Rights Council.

Then, Dorina Xhixho launched a full-blown attack against the right. For his desire to lower taxes. For his guilty wait-and-see attitude in the fight for the climate. Because she believes that “culture costs too much” supposedly. “Times are hard for the most modest, but the right continues to pretend that everything is fine,” she asserts. Dorina Xhixho advocates a “renewed socialist project” which must spread across “all public policies”.

Christina Kitsos, outgoing magistrate in charge of the Department of Social Cohesion and Solidarity, takes her turn at the microphone.

The woman who will be mayor of Geneva from June 1 is seeking a second term this evening within the Executive. She insists on “ethos”, the social bond, the only element that remains during disasters, when everything collapses, during social, climatic or economic crises.

The magistrate recalls her successes during her first mandate: the municipalization of early childhood, but also the strengthening of support for the socio-professional reintegration of young people or the support obtained from all Geneva municipalities concerning emergency housing for the homeless. shelters. She also evokes the battles to come, in particular the loss of more than 50 million francs in the City of Geneva, resulting from the tax cut voted by the Grand Council.

“We see a paradox: an increase in inequalities and economic growth on the other hand,” she says.

The current president of the Finance Commission opens the presentation speeches – each candidate has seven minutes. He begins by “returning to his past”, that of an asylum seeker of Somali origin, who arrived in Switzerland at the age of 13.

In a well-structured speech, using the term “comrades” several times, Ahmed Jama lists his priorities. The first: fight against precariousness. “We have the means,” he insists, referring to the wonderful surpluses generated by the City in recent years. The municipal councilor, elected since 2013, then points out the “low” turnover within municipal property management. “We must guarantee a roof over our heads, training, a job, a salary and security” for everyone, he summarizes. Because “human dignity is at stake”.