- The Swiss Green Liberal Party is initiating exclusion proceedings against the Zurich GLP politician and co-president of Operation Libero, Sanija Ameti.
- The 32-year-old had previously resigned from the leadership of the GLP Zurich. The party confirmed this to SRF.
- Operation Libero continues to support its co-president. Not so her employer.
- Ameti had received severe criticism after shooting at a picture with a Christian motif and was reported.
Now the GLP Switzerland is also reacting to the pictures posted by Ameti: “From the perspective of the party leadership, if member Sanija Ameti continues to stay with the Green Liberals, this will damage the reputation of the Green Liberals. In order to prevent further damage, the GLP Switzerland is requesting that an immediate expulsion procedure be initiated,” the party said.
Sanija Ameti posted this picture and other photos of herself during shooting practice on Instagram last week. The weapon used by Ameti is believed to be an air pistol. It is unknown where the photos were taken. According to Ameti, the picture used as a target comes from the catalog of a Zurich auction house.
Screenshot Instagram
The party has taken note of Ameti’s apology on Instagram. “The GLP welcomes this. However, it would like Ameti to also renounce his party membership,” the statement said. However, the party is not waiting to see whether Ameti leaves the party of his own accord, but is applying to the relevant committees for his expulsion from the party.
Although Ameti apologized for her Instagram post about the shooting exercise on the Jesus picture, she damaged the reputation of the GLP, the statement continues. This means that the conditions for exclusion proceedings have been met.
Criticism continues
After the “Blick” newspaper reported on Saturday about the pictures Ameti had published on Instagram, it didn’t take long for the 32-year-old to respond to the criticism. “I didn’t think anything of it. I’m incredibly sorry,” she wrote on X. She deleted the pictures after she realized their religious content.
Even after the pictures were deleted, the criticism did not subside. Both her party, the Zurich GLP, and her employer Farner Consulting distanced themselves from the action. She lost her job at the large PR agency, as was announced in the evening.
In the afternoon, the politician’s resignation from the party leadership and the board of the GLP Canton of Zurich was announced. According to Beat Rüfenacht, co-president of the GLP Canton of Zurich, her resignation is by mutual agreement.
The Young SVP Switzerland filed a criminal complaint this morning for violating freedom of belief and worship, the party announced. Nicolas Rimoldi, founder of the Mass-Voll movement, also announced that he would file a complaint.
Possible trouble with the justice system
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The police are investigating the matter. “The Zurich cantonal police are aware of this post and are examining its content,” the cantonal police wrote on X. The focus is on possible violations of freedom of belief and worship.
The Bernese cantonal parliament, the Grand Council, received a request from the SVP on the subject, as Ameti is a doctoral student at the University of Bern.
Operation Libero stands behind Ameti
Sanija Ameti is supported by Operation Libero: This shooting exercise and the images of it are wrong and inappropriate, says Stefan Manser-Egli, who presides over Operation Libero together with Sanija Ameti.
Previously provocative statements
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The lawyer, who was born in Bosnia and Herzegovina, has been co-president of Operation Libero for around three years. In this role in particular, she has attracted attention several times with provocations, for example 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”.
She explained herself and apologized: “We never doubted her story or the sincerity of what happened. This mutual trust is unbroken.” But Manser-Egli is also certain that this shooting exercise will have a negative impact on the organization and on Ameti. “What is important now is how she deals with it, how we and we as a society deal with it. There are no winners in this story.”
Sanija Ameti is not feeling well and she and her family are under police protection because of threats, she wrote to Radio SRF. She did not want to speak.
Statement of the Bishops’ Conference SBK
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«Sanija Ameti, who is known for her political activities, used a picture of a mother and her child for her shooting practice. She then posted the picture, riddled with bullet holes, on Instagram.
The members of the Swiss Bishops’ Conference condemn this unacceptable behavior. Even if one ignores the religious representation of the Mother of God – which this image shows very clearly – the use of this image shows violence and disrespect for the human person. Like many Catholics, the Swiss bishops also feel that their religious sensibilities have been violated. They are grateful for the letter from Sanija Ameti to the Bishop of Chur, in which she asks the Catholic community for forgiveness.
Nevertheless, the bishops are obliged to express their deep disapproval publicly. In our society it remains crucial that education and upbringing actively contribute to respect for the human person and his or her religious convictions.”
