Matthias Jauslin moves to GLP –
The last environmental policy dissenter is leaving the FDP
The Aargau National Councilor Matthias Jauslin no longer wants to support FDP President Burkart’s course. This positioned the party significantly further to the right than his predecessor.
Published today at 2:39 p.m
Matthias Jauslin: “I want to be able to look in the mirror in the evening.”
Photo: Matthias Spicher (“20 Minutes”)
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- National Councilor Matthias Jauslin switches from the FDP to the Green Liberals.
- He criticizes the FDP for a lack of environmental priorities such as CO₂ reduction.
- FDP President Thierry Burkart criticizes the timing of the transfer.
- Jauslin emphasizes that he has remained true to his liberal values.
Matthias Jauslin politicized for the FDP for almost 30 years. The entrepreneur from Aargau Wohlen sat in the municipality’s legislative and executive branches, and later in the Aargau Grand Council. He was president of the FDP Aargau for four years and has represented the party in the National Council since 2015. Now he’s had enough. The 62-year-old is leaving the FDP with immediate effect and joining the Green Liberals.
He justifies his change with the FDP’s course on environmental issues. Spatial planning or climate policy are no longer a priority, he says. For him, preserving biodiversity or reducing CO₂ emissions are not questions that can be classified into a left-right schema. “It should have long been clear to everyone that our CO₂ emissions are too high, regardless of where they are politically located,” says Jauslin.
He remains true to his liberal beliefs. This attitude includes the commitment to a liberal order, but also to community spirit. The decision to change parties matured over a long period of time and was made over the holidays, says Jauslin.
Burkart sees no change in environmental policy
FDP President Thierry Burkart “acknowledges” the party change. Given the fact that Jauslin often voted differently than the parliamentary group, the change does not come as a complete surprise. “However, I would of course have welcomed it if Matthias Jauslin had made the change before the federal elections,” says Burkart.
Regarding the accusation of a change in environmental policy, Burkart says: “We supported both the climate protection law and the electricity law. But we are resisting more and more subsidies that do nothing for the climate.” The FDP president does not fear that Jauslin’s resignation will be followed by further party resignations.
FDP President Thierry Burkart would have welcomed it if Matthias Jauslin had completed his transition to the GLP before the federal elections in autumn 2023.
Photo: Franziska Rothenbühler
-It is true that he regularly voted differently than the majority in parliament, says Jauslin. “I want to be able to look in the mirror in the evening.” Jauslin doesn’t see that he should have changed party before the elections. He was elected in Aargau by those who had the same environmental policy priorities as him, i.e. by supporters of the progressive, socially liberal FDP wing.
For the new legislature, which began in December 2023, Jauslin was transferred from the Environment Commission to the Transport Commission by the FDP parliamentary group executive against his will. This reallocation only took place after the elections, says Jauslin. The fact that the FDP has delegated a representative to the Environmental Commission, Christian Wasserfallen, who pursues a completely different energy policy, proves the change of course. In the past, the FDP would not have fundamentally questioned the association’s right to complain, says Jauslin. And the demand for an immediate expansion of nuclear power does not correspond to previous party decisions.
Jürg Grossen: “Jauslin is a progressive entrepreneur”
When it came to environmental and energy policy, Jauslin was the last FDP parliamentarian to regularly deviate from the party line. But there were also dissonances in European politics. Jauslin is bothered by the fact that the FDP does not clearly support the Bilaterals III negotiated with the EU. “A business party would have to do everything in its power to ensure that Switzerland’s relations with what is clearly its most important trading partner are regulated.”
European policy could lead to more discussions in the FDP than the now undisputed environmental policy course. In general, dissenters in the FDP have become rarer. One person who repeatedly deviated from the line when it came to European politics and fundamental rights issues was Kurt Fluri from Solothurn. He resigned at the end of 2023.
There is great joy at GLP. “We share the same attitudes and values,” says group president Corina Gredig. Party president Jürg Grossen describes Jauslin as a “progressive entrepreneur”. As a long-time energy and transport politician, he is a good fit for the GLP. “We are pleased that a liberal spirit and responsible politician like him is finding his new home in the GLP.”
The last time the GLP received a prominent addition was in 2019. At that time, former SP National Councilor Chantal Galladé changed party. She justified her move after 30 years of SP membership with the SP’s rejection of the framework agreement with the EU. However, the GLP has also had to cope with resignations. In February 2023, a few days after Isabel Garcia was re-elected as Zurich GLP cantonal councilor, she announced that she was switching to the FDP. This change even had legal repercussions and ended up in federal court.
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Markus Brotschi is the Bundeshaus editor at Tamedia, the focus of his reporting is social and health policy. He has been working as a journalist and editor since 1994. More info
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