The conclusion of the Bern city elections is sobering: the federal city has slipped even further to the left. The commoners are not welcome.
The new Bern city government: Matthias Aebischer, Melanie Mettler, Ursina Anderegg, Marieke Kruit and Alec von Graffenried (from left).
Alessandro Della Valle / Keystone
The SP of the city of Bern showed on Sunday where God sits. In the elections, the comrades were able to further expand their already outstanding position of power in the city parliament. Together with the Greens, the trade unions, the Alternative Left and other like-minded groups, they dominate the politics of the federal city at will – as before, so will continue to be the case. Anyone who thinks that Zurich or Basel are left-wing strongholds doesn’t know Bern: Bern, once so staid and well-behaved, is now a radical left-wing city where they want to abolish capitalism and make the population happy with an unconditional basic income – and where the officials already do be sent into retirement at the age of 63.
This time you can’t blame the commoners. Unlike in previous elections, they have come together and joined forces to try to ensure more political diversity and a more open debate. The term “bourgeois” has to be used liberally in relation to Bern; Entrepreneurs are hardly to be found in their ranks anymore, but they keep up with the spirit of the times.
Two thirds vote red-green
But the bourgeois – or better: non-left – forces from the center to the FDP to the SVP did not succeed in regaining a second seat in the city government. Their joint list only received a third of the votes. Green-liberal National Councilor Melanie Mettler will be the only “bourgeois” member of the five-member government committee. It cannot be assumed that it will be able to achieve much as a single mask.
The election results leave you perplexed. Bern, that is the sobering, even depressing conclusion of these elections, seems lost for the citizens. This is all the more bitter because the financial problems of the heavily indebted city are obvious and it urgently needs a serious financial policy.
But different rules apply in Bern. The electorate has made itself wonderfully comfortable with well-paid positions in the administration (municipal, cantonal and federal), in the government-affiliated bacon belt, in the many non-governmental organizations based around the Federal Palace and other subsidized lobbies. There is hardly any professional competition from immigration here, nor is there any fear of losing a job.
Attraction point for like-minded people
The red-green government also knows exactly what it owes its voters; Clientelism is part of Bern. In recent years she has moved cleverly to attract even more like-minded people. The federal city has increasingly become a red-green parallel world in which you live among your own kind – a state-cared-for biotope where you don’t care much about how the money is earned.
This is exemplified by the newly elected Green Party member Ursina Anderegg, who achieved a brilliant result. She will form the city government with Melanie Mettler, Marieke Kruit (SP), Matthias Aebischer (SP) and the Green Alec von Graffenried. The state-paid equality expert can be described as the left-winger of the newly formed government.
Anderegg wants to promote a concept of “city citizenship” for everyone, spend more money on cultural funding or set up a rainbow house for the queer community. As extensive as her ideas for state expansion are, her ideas about finances are modest: “The focus should not be on avoiding debt, but on a good public service for everyone,” is her program.
Are such positions really a recommendation for a government office where you are responsible for millions of dollars? Apparently in Bern.
