Green Wave and Senior Vice President: What the Valais and Solothurn Elections Show

Green Wave and Senior Vice President: What the Valais and Solothurn Elections Show and What They Don’t

The Greens could win, the best lost. But the SVP did not benefit from Corona. That is the conclusion of the cantonal elections of Solothurn and Valais.

Lucien Fluri / ch media

Election Sunday was very marked in the diaries of party strategists, because March 7 is the only “super election day” in 2021: in Solothurn and Valais, both parliaments and cantonal governments had to be chosen. Only in Freiburg and Neuchâtel will there be elections at the end of the year.

He wasn’t just interested in whether the fierce debates over the crown in recent weeks had had any impact. In particular, the LPG, the Greens and the medium / CVP should have been excited. Because for the CVP they were not only the first elections since the merger with the BDP in the center (although the party continued to appear as CVP in both cantons).

The CVP had to shake in Valais and Solothurn

There is much to do for the party in both regions: in Valais, the majority of the CVP in government was (and is) on the brink, in the canton of Solothurn, the second seat of government was (and is) threatened with being lost. In both places this will be decided in a second vote. So what happened yesterday? What trends have been confirmed or changed? The most important questions and answers.

What happened to the Green Wave of the 2019 national elections?

The green wave continued: in both Valais and Solothurn, the green seats won, in Solothurn three (new 10), in Valais even five (new 13). In Solothurn, this was at the expense of the SP, in Valais at the expense of the CVP. LPG was also able to grow in Solothurn and doubled its number of seats from 3 to 6.

There was no green wave in the Valais State Council elections: the two Green candidates lagged far behind in the last places.

Does the senior vice president benefit from his aggressive crown policy in Bern? Or does the state support course help the environment?

Neither one nor the other can be said. In both cantons, however, the largest party loses: in Valais it is CVP / CSP (-7 seats, now 48 out of 130). At Solothurn, however, the CVP was surprisingly stable. The big loser is the FDP. It has to give up four seats compared to 2017 and still has 22. In Valais, the SVP (-1 seat) did not benefit from the losses of the CVP. In Solothurn, on the other hand, the SVP was able to win two seats (20 new ones) at the expense of the FDP. This shouldn’t just have to do with Covid policy. The party had paid more attention to cantonal issues in recent years. His candidate for the governing council ran out of possibilities.

Can women grow?

Y. In Solothurn, a majority of women on the five-member governing council is emerging for the first time. In addition to the two reelected government councilors, Susanne Schaffner (SP) and Brigit Wyss (Greens), the CVP cantonal president, Sandra Kolly, has the best chance of being elected on the second ballot.

It looks completely different in Valais: the two candidates for the Green State Council, the only women who ran for executive elections, fell far behind. After the resignation of Esther Waeber-Kalbermatten (SP), the Valais will soon return to an exclusively male government.

The number of women on the 100-member Solothurn Cantonal Council increased from 28 to 30. In Valais, the proportion of women increased from 19 to 35 percent.

And the government elections?

In both Valais and Solothurn, things are not looking bad for the CVP: in the canton of Solothurn, the party had two of the five seats so far; the two previous CVP representatives did not run. However, the party may raise its hopes: CVP cantonal president Kolly came in fourth place. In fifth place is the second CVP candidate, Thomas A. Müller. The race for this place will be closed between CVP and FDP: Only 386 votes separate Müller from FDP chaser Peter Hodel. The three previous representatives of the Greens, SP and FDP were re-elected in the canton of Solothurn.

In Valais, the CVP could defend its majority in the five-member Council of State. The contest remains open because all candidates must go to the second ballot. At the head are the previous representatives of the CVP Roberto Schmidt and Christophe Darbellay, followed by the National Councilor of the SP, Mathias Reynard, who should defend the seat of the resigned Esther Waeber-Kalbermatten. He is still ahead of the former FDP man, Frédéric Favre. CVP newcomer Serge Gaudin came in fifth place, just 718 votes ahead of SVP National Councilor Franz Ruppen. The March 28 race will be very close between CVP and SVP. (saw / aargauerzeitung.ch)