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Big events or demand for extensive masks: in the Corona crisis, fissures are opening between the Zurich health director and her party.
SVP figurehead Natalie Rickli relies on state repression as Zurich’s health director in the current crisis. It used to be different.
Natalie Rickli’s larger-than-life image lights up the Zurich SVP delegates in the dark corridor of the Dübendorf Samsung Hall. Navy blue top, cheeky laugh, arms folded: this is how the health director introduces herself to the party colleagues on the big screen while speaking on the podium about “Coping with the coronavirus pandemic in the canton of Zurich.”
The 170 delegates seem a bit lost in the 5,000-seat room. Due to the increasing number of new infections, the meeting was moved to Dübendorf on short notice for better protection.
Hans-Ulrich Lehmann, a member of SVP, was able to make the space available as a co-owner of the Samsung Hall. “For a price of friendship”, while laughing at the occasion. But Tuesday night’s party meeting did little to change their situation: the business was dead, events were not booked, there were no artists on the way. As long as it depends on the arbitrariness of the authorities, little will change.
Depending on the arbitrariness of the authorities: Criticisms of the federal government and the canton were clearly audible. Lehmann, one is told behind closed doors, was not at all pleased when Rickli recently campaigned for a ban on big events at the “Tages-Anzeiger.” But he declined to comment specifically on the politics of his party colleague.
The health director spoke to SVP delegates about the pandemic Tuesday night to close his own ranks. The fact that dividing lines are opening up between her, which has already been described as “100 percent true to the line,” and the party has been evident in recent months.
When in doubt, for greater state control
Rickli repeatedly campaigned for drastic state measures and even violated the principle of collegiality to enforce them. After other advisers to the bourgeois government voiced their criticism of the mask requirement in public transport in the summer and identified the responsibility for it with the federal government, Rickli rushed forward in a press conference. She was in favor of the mask requirement, she told reporters in early July, immediately adding: “But I have to say that the governing council as a body is against the mask requirement.”
When it came to expanding the obligation to include business in August, he said: “Personal responsibility no longer works.” Wearing a mask when shopping is a small contribution and is reasonable. When the federal government announced in early September that it would allow major events again, Rickli said in an interview with Swiss radio and television that the pace of relaxation was too fast for her. And finally, last weekend, he came out in favor of banning major events in the canton of Zurich again, as his party and official colleague Pierre Alain Schnegg had already done in Bern.
Obvious dissent, but no overt criticism
The chairman of his cantonal party, Benjamin Fischer, sees it completely differently. At the request of NZZ on Monday, it came out clearly against the ban on major events. That contradicts any proportionality, after all, there are sophisticated protection concepts. Of course, there is still a residual risk of getting infected on arrival and departure, but: “In the long term, we have to learn to live with this virus and we cannot cancel our entire social life.”
The positions could hardly be more different: on the one hand, the health director of the most populous canton, who is in close contact with the doctor of the canton in question and the filling hospitals and wants to contain the pandemic at all costs. On the other hand, there is his bourgeois party with representatives of the business and commercial sector who are skeptical and very critical of the drastic economic measures taken by the federal government and the cantons.
At Tuesday’s delegates meeting, efforts were made not to resolve the disputes publicly. The party secretariat had received many complaints about the anti-crown measures, the Zurich vice president said. However, he explicitly refrained from commenting on the issue, because the health director would provide “first-hand” information. She did that too: “We’re not doing well right now,” she said. Switzerland is on the risk list of other countries. He reminded SVP delegates that this also had consequences for the economy.
The government must ensure the well-being of the entire population, Rickli said. Freedom is a great good for the SVP. Personal responsibility also includes protecting not only yourself, but others as well. The most important goal is to avoid a second blockage. The extended mask requirement also contributes to this.
The government councilor received a polite applause. Benjamin Fischer later said that he was aware that there were different attitudes in the game. But that day there is no time to discuss it. Initially, your request was honored not to comment, but only to ask urgent questions.
In the end, differences emerged. The delegate and the transport company Thomas Brauch expressed doubts about the mask requirement. It also fears state repression and the closure of entire plants or parts of companies. Keep your distance and hand hygiene is fine. But no one in your company wears a mask and there is not a single case of corona. A “Bravo!” It sounded from the hallway and there was much applause. Rickli didn’t reply.
Impressive role change
Natalie Rickli’s role change in her political career is impressive: from prominent party politician to state-affiliated magistrate. As a loyal national advisor to the SVP and an advocate for the private media, she still campaigned for the least possible state and the greatest possible economic freedom, now as a member of the government in the pandemic crisis, demanding rigorous repression by the state.
She would likely resolve this alleged contradiction herself by saying that a strong state on security issues is needed, whether in public safety, where she has been campaigning for harsher punishments for violent and sexual offenders since the beginning of her political career, or , as now, in a situation of grave danger for criminals. the health of the population.
“As a member of the government, I remain true to my principles,” Natalie Rickli told her party colleagues at Samsung Hall and seemed to want to reassure them. Freedom is still essential for them. However, to maintain this in the medium and long term, it is now necessary to accept the restrictions again in the short term, “even if the masks are not popular in the SVP.”
A generational conflict?
Rickli clearly stands out from parts of the SVP with his stance. But in his course he also receives the support of party members who, otherwise, are not stingy with criticism. For example, cantonal councilor Hans-Peter Amrein says that the current situation is not only about supporting the health director, but also the authorities in general.
Claudio Schmid, head of strategy for the SVP faction, even says he supports Rickli’s approach “100 percent”. Now it is essential to protect the elderly, “those people who have done something for this state.” Schmid admits, however, that there are “some in the party who are upset.” But it is less a matter of political orientation and more a matter of age. Guys in particular are critical of Rickli’s position.
This is also confirmed by Junge SVP president Camille Lothe over the phone. “The measures affected young people much more,” he says. The low nightlife and the numerous canceled or resized events are not only decisive from an economic point of view but also socially. “Social occasions like an Oktoberfest or a hockey game are important for young people to network,” says Lothe.
Like all youth parties in the canton, you also participate in the Pro Nightlife Zurich association and experience up close the negative effects of protective measures on the bar and club scene. Many young SVPs work part-time in the catering industry and are directly affected by the crisis in the industry.
Lothe also advocates for further implementation with protection concepts at major events. “Banning everything as a preventive measure is certainly the wrong approach,” he says, and thus contradicts his own councilor.
When asked about this, Lothe says that she understands Natalie Rickli’s position to some extent. But you have to be aware of the importance of events for the Canton of Zurich. Lothe also hopes that Rickli mainly threatens new cantonal measures to warn the population, as a kind of deterrent.
Of the opposition to the government
The fact that Natalie Rickli has the biggest differences with Junge’s senior vice president of all places is not without some irony. That’s where the now 43-year-old from Winterthur began her political career at the age of twenty as a party secretary.
But this summer, government councilor Rickli was forced to primarily urge young people in Zurich to reason. “The photos of Upper Latvian are not what we want,” he said, referring to the mostly young guests at the river pool, who barely kept their distance.
It is just one of many examples that illustrate how much Natalie Rickli has changed. What was already evident in the government council’s electoral campaign, when it was emphatically moderate, now seems complete: the metamorphosis from opposition politician to government official.
This should also be revealed on the TV screen next Friday night. Later, the Zurich health director appears on SRF’s political program “Arena”. Title: “Corona, are we going to pack it up now?” When she was a young politician, Rickli had spoken to seasoned politicians on the wall of the “Arena”, now she should be the sensible magistrate to advise caution, and perhaps even have to answer questions from an aggressive young politician.
