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Due to the rules of the crown, interest representatives were excluded from parliament for months. Well, before the fall session starts, they fight back.
Parliament will return to the Federal Palace on Monday. And lobbyists want to go back there too. They have already been denied entry to the Bernexpo exhibition halls during the summer session. The responsible parliamentarians have now decided that they must remain out during the next fall session.
“More or less arbitrary rules”
That alienates him, says the president of the Swiss Society of Public Affairs, the country’s top lobbyist, Reto Wiesli, to Radio SRF: “We want to be able to do our job as lobbyists in this democratic system right. And that here there are no more or less arbitrary rules so that one group can be excluded or another is preferred ”.
Arbitrariness in the access regime: The accusation is directed at the administrative delegation, that is, to the body of national councilors that is in charge of the house rules in the Federal Palace. Wiesli says: Canton representatives, visitors and diplomats can return; lobbyists, however, do not.
Possibility of digital contacts with parliamentarians
But not by an arbitrary decision, responds the Green National Councilor Irène Kälin of the administrative delegation. There are just too many lobbyists. “We thought it was and we continue to think that it is irresponsible to let so many people enter the Federal Palace at the same time.” Lobbyists, according to Kälin, could also establish digital contact with parliamentarians: by email, SMS, Skype.
But in this way, it would hardly be possible to organize spontaneous meetings with several people on the sidelines of the session, says lobbyist Wiesli: “And if instead you have to chase your individual MPs for weeks until they answer an email or a call , then it will really work complicated and difficult. “
“Apparently lobbyists are overestimating themselves”
Kälin responds: He cannot understand the vehemence of the pressure group criticism. “Apparently, on the one hand, they overestimate themselves when they think that they are so important or that they cannot work if they cannot come directly to the Federal Palace. On the other hand, I also have the impression that they did not recognize the seriousness of the situation, because we are still in the middle of the corona pandemic ”.
A kind of back door remains open for lobbyists: they can register as daytime guests with individual MPs. And perhaps you will find an opportunity to resolve a dispute, in a face-to-face conversation, inside the Federal Palace.
