Geneva: elected officials play sorcerers’ apprentices with TPG

Dramatic twist on Friday: while all the lights were green until then, a majority of deputies refused to vote for the 2 billion francs to ensure the operating budget of the TPG over five years.

This vote, which undermined the services contract providing for a 30% increase in the offer, smacks of amateurism. Because given the colossal challenges for mobility in Geneva, the delaying maneuvers of the UDC, the MCG, the PLR ​​and the Center will have the only advantage of fueling the satirical section of the “Tribune de Genève”.

These parties thus agreed to vote only on the management budget for next year, striking out the service contract for the following four years. The goal? Guarantee the operation of the management in 2025, giving time to seriously study the very significant budget increase planned thereafter.

Fell in the water

The problem is that as it stands, the budget for next year has fallen through the cracks at the same time as the vision and planning essential to the TPG, which parliament did not expect. All this agitation under the pretext that the Transport Commission, apart from one MP, had previously approved the 2 billion in just two hours and without asking any questions.

However, it is before the plenary sessions that the objects need to be dissected in order to vote in an informed manner. Pretending that this commission would not have to worry about the financial aspects is a poor excuse after having put the Republic in all its states, and after the parliament had already given the green light to the development of the TPG by voting in March the action plan of the Department of Mobility for public transport.

Pierre Maudet, the TPG and the parties of good will now have three weeks until the next parliamentary session to try to resurrect the five-year plan.

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Go Armanios has been a journalist in the Geneva section since August 2022 and covers cantonal politics in particular.More info

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