Vote, Rösti: “A no will not stop immigration”

UDC Federal Councilor Albert Rösti suddenly finds himself under pressure: according to the latest polls, the motorway extension project could be rejected in next Sunday’s vote, despite the fact that the Minister of Transport has invested a lot in the voting campaign and that the first polls seemed positive. “Everyone will benefit from the expansion of the motorway network, even those who do not have a car, because such a project will benefit freight transport,” explains Albert Rösti in an interview with “SonntagsZeitung”.

Furthermore, for the Federal Councilor, traffic jams constitute a risk for safety and the environment. “Every time a truck starts or brakes, it consumes up to two liters of diesel depending on its size. We already have 48,000 hours of bottling per year in Switzerland. As Minister of Transport, I cannot accept this,” he said. In the interview, Albert Rösti dismantles another argument from opponents, often heard during the campaign: widening a highway does not generate more traffic, according to him. “It just brings cars back onto the highway that had diverted onto secondary roads because of traffic jams. This relieves the villages,” he says.

Albert Rösti also believes that what the opponents are doing is not honest. “75% of trips in Switzerland are made by car, while public transport only represents 21%. We cannot tell all commuters to take the train, because we do not have enough capacity,” he notes. If the federal councilor recognizes that there is a certain reluctance in his party to accept an extension of the highways because of the constant growth of the population, he still calls on UDC voters to approve the project, otherwise they will be punished. -themselves. “A no will not stop immigration, and traffic jams will certainly not disappear,” he concludes.