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An association wanted to present opposing candidates for the regional council elections in Coop. The board of directors makes it impossible.
Anyone who receives the “Coop-Zeitung” is a member of the retail giant. There are two and a half million of them in Switzerland. They elect the six regional councils of Coop. But almost none of the cooperative members know this: in the absence of opposing candidates, this has been done by silent election for decades. The association “Detailwandel” wanted to change this. It was looking for 500 candidates for the current elections to the regional council. I wanted to start collecting signatures shortly.
The criteria for this have already been strict. For his own electoral list, he needed the signature of two percent of the cooperative members in a region. Raffael Wüthrich, co-president of “Detailwandel”, said in SRF’s consumer magazine “Espresso” that his association wanted to compete in five of the six regions: “We would have had to collect around 55,000 signatures in 30 days.”
Tighter than a popular initiative
Apparently, the Coop board of directors got nervous. On September 23, he massively tightened electoral regulations. An electoral list now requires the signature of six percent of the cooperative’s members. The collection period has been reduced to 15 days. For comparison: a federal popular initiative requires 100,000 signatures in 18 months. For the electoral lists in all the Coop regions there are 150,000 in approximately two weeks.
In these circumstances, collecting signatures is impossible, says Raffael Wüthrich: “The Board of Directors is clearly saying that Coop no longer has anything to do with a democratic company.” You don’t want employees, producers, and consumers to have a voice. The association “Detailwandel” compares the procedure with that of the Belarusian dictator Lukashenko.
Wüthrich says Coop wanted to “improve the details” “from the inside out.” For example, with a consistent climate strategy, better working conditions and fair prices for consumers and producers.
Coop doesn’t want to have known anything
Coop does not want to know anything about the candidacies planned for “Detailwandel” and denies any connection with the adjustment of the electoral regulations. This is routinely checked before elections: “The Board of Directors has taken into account the fact that the number of Coop members has almost doubled in the last 20 years,” he says upon request. Electronic tools would greatly facilitate voter mobilization and signature collection. That is why Coop does not prevent other electoral lists.
Coop criticizes that the association “Detailwandel” never looked for a conversation. “Coop views the sweeping lawsuits and the attempt to gain control of Coop as an unfriendly and unsustainable approach.” The goal is to put Coop in an unstable position and hurt it financially. Each Coop member has the opportunity to run for the regional council. All candidates who register in advance will be verified for inclusion on the official electoral list.
