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Mathias Gabathuler, director of the Kantonsschule am Brühl, will succeed Thomas Scheitlin. This had announced his resignation on Tuesday at the end of the year.
Mathias Gabathuler: The FDP wants to defend the city council with him.
It is now clear who the FDP wants to defend the St. Gallen city council with on September 27: it is Mathias Gabathuler, the principal of the Brühl Cantonal School. Gabathuler is 52 years old, married and has three children. The leadership of the FDP city party has brought environmentalists to the general assembly.
The decision on Gabathuler’s candidacy, however, is not made within the usual framework due to the crown crisis: party members rather comment on it by letter. On Saturday they will receive the documents in the mail asking them to put Mathias Gabathuler on the plate for the fall municipal executive elections, and then they have until May 11 to send their vote by letter.
The candidates have been prepared for a long time.
The candidacy is not a surprise. In the past few months, the name of Mathias Gabathuler had been mentioned repeatedly in connection with a possible Scheitlin successor. That this was the case also has a clear background, as demonstrated by the FDP’s media orientation at the Waaghaus on Friday.
Mathias Gabathuler’s application has been in the works for a long time. Discussions with potential candidates took place in 2018. As a result, a city FDP party leadership search committee put a double proposal on the table: on December 19, 2018, Gabathuler decided on it, as he said on Friday. Party President Oskar Seger to the media in the Parliament Hall at the Waaghaus.
Press conference
A date and a place with many symbols.
(vre) The announcement of Mathias Gabathuler’s candidacy for the city council took place on Friday in a special setting. On the one hand, the city’s FDP was made public on May 1, Labor Day, when traditionally the forces to the left of the political center spoke out. It was a coincidence and not a deeper intention, he said.
Also unusual, and thanks to Corona, only ten media representatives were admitted to the press conference with the incoming inspection at the Waaghaus. The contingent was also depleted by SRF through the “St.Galler Tagblatt” and the “St.Galler Nachrichten” to “Die Ostschweiz”. This rush in St. Gallen for media orientation is already considered a great march …
Political mistakes cleanly overlooked
The parliament hall at the Waaghaus is a very suitable, but also risk-free, place for the announcement of a mayoral bid: you can quickly stand in the political seat regarding seating arrangements and become the target of ridicule .
What did not happen to the FDP city party on Friday: Candidate Mathias Gabathuler was also not sitting in the chair of the city president during parliamentary meetings. And he was not sitting on the throne of the highest sanctuary in the city, the Speaker of the Speaker of the City Parliament.
There are some obstacles waiting for the FDP candidate
Fight elections are planned for the city council and the city council in autumn. In addition to past municipal council and FDP members with Mathias Gabathuler, CVP, SVP and Greens candidates will also be included. It is still unclear whether the previous and last three parties will only represent the city council or the city council. however, there are likely to be four to seven nominations for this as well.
Mathias Gabathuler, therefore, has no “option in the car to sleep”, on the contrary, there are several obstacles. The FDP candidate presented on Friday knows that, according to the profile of the National Council elections, he tends strongly towards the political center. The fact that he sees himself as a “modern” supporter of the FDP is expressed in the election campaign: Mathias Gabathuler pulls the slogan “Smart”. Urban Rocks. in the next march.
Following in the footsteps of the predecessor Scheitlin, but more pointed
According to Friday’s press conference, he wants to point out that a complex world requires “adequate, modern and innovative solutions.” For Gabathuler, St. Gallen also needs “strong urban self-confidence” to play the role of “engine of the economy, services, trade, industry and mobility in eastern Switzerland”.
Mathias Gabathuler presents his program at the Waaghaus, which he would pursue as mayor.
The FDP candidate did not present explanations on political principles on Friday, but did present a clear program for the city council. He walked in the footsteps of his predecessor Thomas Scheitlin, but sometimes he put on sharper accents than he did. His position on detailed political questions remained open.
The city should further emerge as an urban center
For Mathias Gabathuler, St. Gallen must play its role as the center of the region, the canton and the Lake Constance metropolitan region more than ever. For this, a shake must go through the city, and that through the generations. In the future, the city of St. Gallen would have to be perceived as a much more urban center than before. A general strategy is needed for this.
The FDP candidate’s medium-term goal is a population of 100,000 to support the center’s services more effectively and broadly. He also wants to expand the educational city of St.Gallen to IT and medtech clusters based on existing strong players. And the infrastructure for mobility must be constantly expanded according to the ring structures from region to metropolitan region for all current and future forms of mobility.
Majority election
It is the town hall and a seat of the town hall
(vre) On September 27, renewal elections for the 63-member parliament and the five-member municipal government will be held in St. Gallen. With the latter, Mayor Thomas Scheitlin’s resignation at the end of the year is about two things: first, his vacant seat on city hall and second, city hall. Two elections are held in parallel.
On the one hand, the electorate must determine the five members of the city council. Four of them, Markus Buschor, Peter Jans, Maria Pappa and Sonja Lüthi, are running again and are likely to be re-elected. Realistically, first-time candidates, including for the FDP Mathias Gabathuler, are fighting for the vacant position. Election to the city council is a prerequisite for being city president.
Second, the municipal electorate must determine who will become mayor in the fall. Former members of the city council are also interested in the office. Mathias Gabathuler will also run for this (must succeed Thomas Scheitlin for the FDP). You can only be mayor if you are elected to the City Council at the same time.
The first vote for city hall and city hall will take place on September 27. The obstacle to an election is quite high: candidates must achieve an absolute majority (half of all valid votes cast plus one). If the seats remain vacant, those who have not reached an absolute majority can request them in a second vote. The relative majority applies here: the one with the highest number of votes wins.
