Basel: “The Stawa is falsifying evidence” – scandal in the Grand Council

Nicola Goepfert (GAB) provided the excitement of the day. The debate in the Grand Council revolved around the question of how many new positions the public prosecutor’s office should receive. Goepfert criticized: “The Stawa has its priorities wrong. At the BaselNazi free trials “We’re back to square one and massive amounts of resources have been tied up.” The Stawa also tried immunity Sibel Arslans (Basta) because of her “commitment to dialogue” at demonstrations.

Bruno Lötscher (center) asked an interim question: Whether Goepfert knew that the criminal court was responsible for the fact that the Basel Nazi-free trials were back at square one, and not the Stawa.

The Basta Grand Councilor replied: “The criminal court is colluding, the Stawa is falsifying evidence…” – he didn’t go any further with his comments because Council President Claudio Miozzari (SP) choked him off. When asked further, Goepfert referred to the videos, the sound of which was provided by Stawa adulterated should have.

Miozzari later told parliament: “Please be careful when making allegations against the administration.”

Five or eleven new jobs?

Goepfert’s statements were at least the emotional highlight of the debate. Before, the world was a little topsy-turvy. While it is usually the citizens who oppose more positions in the administration, in this discussion it was the SP and individual members of the GAB.

The government council had applied for three new positions at the Stawa. The Finance Commission considered this to be insufficient. She called for a total of eleven new positions, two (a total of five) in the youth staff and six in the regular staff for adults.

The President of the Finance Commission, Joël Thüring (SVP), justified the application with the excessive workload of the prosecutors – there are currently 13,149 pending cases – which leads to burnouts and dismissals. He emphasized: “The increase is still moderate.” In fact, the Stawa would have actually wanted 20.6 new positions.

SP wants “operational optimization”

The SP nevertheless did not agree with the Finance Commission’s proposal. SP Grand Councilor Ivo Ballmer saw the problem in exactly the same way as the majority of parliament: “The pending mountain is big, the proceedings take too long, the victims wait too long.” Because of all the work, charges could become statute-barred. “We want a Stawa that works,” he said.

Nevertheless: The SP only wanted to approve the new positions for the youth staff. 51 jobs have been created at Stawa in the last few years and action has already been taken “financially and politically,” said Ballmer.

Above all, a more precise analysis is necessary. “Where do new positions make sense?” asked the SP Grand Council. Also: “Where are operational optimizations possible? Where can priorities be set?” The Stawa has to use the books when organizing.

“SP eggs around”

The commoners vehemently contradicted Ballmer. “The SP is messing around,” said SVP Grand Councilor Pascal Messerli. “The SP is suddenly talking about business administration,” said David Jenny (FDP), “normally that’s the devil for them.” When it comes to other job increases in the administration, for example when it comes to teaching positions, the SP is on fire, but here they are taking a stand.

For Messerli and Jenny it was clear: the workload was far too high – questionable for security policy and constitutional reasons. We have to act urgently now. Anouk Feurer from the GAB added: “The new criminal procedure code creates extra work, so new positions need to be created.”

These arguments ultimately failed. The Grand Council followed the Finance Commission’s proposal with 63 votes to 32.

The evening

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