Ameti has to give up party leadership | Tages-Anzeiger

She was a figurehead of the Green Liberals. Now Sanija Ameti has shot herself in the foot – her job is gone, her GLP leadership is gone and she is facing expulsion proceedings against her.

The Zurich lawyer and co-president of Operation Libero shot at a picture of Mary with baby Jesus with a sports pistol. She posted the bullet-riddled picture on Instagram – along with a photo of her with the weapon and the comment “turn it off”.

Now Ameti is leaving the party leadership of the Zurich GLP. This was announced by co-presidents Nora Ernst and Beat Rüfenacht after a crisis meeting on Monday. Ameti is leaving the cantonal party leadership “by mutual agreement”. It can be assumed that she was advised to resign from the party.

The GLP Switzerland is also starting an exclusion procedure against Ameti. “The Zurich councillor has damaged the reputation of the Green Liberals,” it says in a press release. From the point of view of the GLP Switzerland, this fulfills the conditions for starting an exclusion procedure. Remaining in the party would only cause it even greater damage. And further: “The GLP Switzerland would welcome it if Sanija Ameti were to take responsibility and leave the party of her own accord.”

The national GLP distanced itself from Ametis posts on Sunday: “That was a huge stupidity that is inexcusable,” said President Jürg Grossen to this editorial office.

Heated tempers

Ameti only became aware of the extent of her action after a “Blick” reporter asked her whether she had intended to hurt religious feelings by shooting at the Jesus and Mary picture. She then deleted the post and apologized: “Hello, I deleted the story because people might feel their religious feelings were hurt. As a template for the 10-meter shooting, I needed motifs that were visible enough. I only had the Koller catalog to hand, which was large enough. I didn’t pay attention to the content of the pictures. That wasn’t right. I’m really sorry if I hurt anyone with that!”

The apology does not seem to have calmed people down. In any case, by Monday afternoon, there were more than 2,500 comments on Ameti’s post. Many reactions are Islamophobic, as Ameti was born into a Muslim family in the former Yugoslavia.

Meanwhile, the Young SVP has filed a criminal complaint against the Green Liberal shooter for violating religious freedom. The Bern cantonal parliament received an inquiry from the SVP on the subject on Monday, as the 32-year-old is a doctoral student at the University of Bern. The police have also been called in, according to people close to Ameti. She is said to have received death threats.

Ameti will leave PR agency Farner

Sanija Ameti is a communications professional and works for the PR agency Farner Consulting. The agency initially stood by her after the shooting. But as the day progressed on Monday, events escalated. Later in the afternoon, Farner announced in response to an inquiry that Ameti would be leaving the agency. CEO Michel Grunder said they were in talks with her.

Operation Libero, on the other hand, which has “advocated religious freedom since its founding,” is sticking with its co-president. It was in this role in particular that Ameti attracted attention several times with her provocations, such as when she said in a television discussion program in November 2022 that she could not “whitewash the two (then) SVP Federal Council candidates Albert Rösti and Hans-Ueli Vogt from a political point of view.”

In a press release on Monday afternoon, Operation Libero wrote: “For her and for Operation Libero, there is no question that her actions were wrong and inappropriate. We value Sanija Ameti as a politician, as a co-president and as a friend.”

Ameti was not available for inquiries from this editorial team on Monday.

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