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Mattea Meyer and Cédric Wermuth were elected by the delegates with a large majority to head the SP party.
Mattea Meyer and Cédric Wermuth will share the SP Presidium in the future.
Photo: Georgios Kefalas (Keystone)
Mattea Meyer and Cédric Wermuth have been chosen to head the SP party. At the party congress on Saturday, the SP delegates voted with a large majority in favor of the dual Meyer-Wermuth presidency.
The result of the elections was very clear: the new duo of the presidium with Meyer and Wermuth, with a marked left political aspect, received 538 of the 561 valid votes. Unsurprisingly, 26-year-old rival Martin Schwab of Nidau BE didn’t stand a chance. He received only 23 votes.
Levrat’s succession should have been sealed in April, but the project was postponed until October due to the coronavirus crisis. At first, the SP wanted to hold its party conference in Basel in real life, but decided on Thursday to go online in light of the rising number of coronavirus infections.
Meyer as a young mother, absinthe as a migrant
The candidate duo were “angry but hopeful” in speeches before the elections. She joined the SP at the age of 16 because she was angry about this unfair world, Mattea Meyer said. She is still angry, but the hope is even greater. “I hope that together we can create the future we want for this world,” he said.
“We are angry. But we are not left with anger. And we do not wait for hope. We choose to be the hope ourselves,” Wermuth said as a complement.
Mattea Meyer will turn 33 in November and grew up in Baselland and Winterthur. She has been politicized in the National Council since 2015, before that she was Cantonal Councilor in Zurich and Vice President of the Swiss Socialist Youth.
Photo: Georgios Kefalas (Keystone)
Mattea Meyer placed special emphasis on her role as young man and mother. “I know what it feels like to be the only woman on a podium to discuss financial policy,” she said. Plus, she knows what it takes to rush from session to session in one day and have a head free for her daughter the other day. “I know how much tenacity and courage it takes to stand up for your convictions and fight back,” Meyer said.
Cédric Wermuth began his speech in Italian and spoke of his Italian roots. The struggle to be taken seriously is part of his family history and biography, he said. As the son of a second generation immigrant and the grandson of a grandmother who fled poverty and misery in fascist Italy, he knows this struggle well.
Cédric Wermuth is 34 years old and comes from the canton of Aargau. The former president of Juso Switzerland has been a member of the National Council since 2011 and also ran for the Council of States in 2019, but withdrew for the second vote.
Photo: Georgios Kefalas (Keystone)
“Taking responsibility for yourself and others is what it is, and always has been, to be a social democrat,” Wermuth said.
The duo Meyer and Wermuth appear pronounced on the left. In a manifesto with the title “Awakening”, they spread not only the classic social democratic concerns, but also the Swiss citizenship for being born in the country.
They ask for a housing policy with a legal return limit for rents, tax relief on salaries and pensions with higher capital taxation and a national minimum tax rate for companies.
Berset appeals to comrades
At the beginning of the party congress, the SP federal advisor, Alain Berset, thanked him resigning party chair Christan Levrat for a “remarkable commitment”. Levrat left a solid and respected match. Unlike its sister parties abroad, SP Switzerland remains the second largest force in the country.
In addition to paying tribute to his Freiburg partner Levrat, Berset made an urgent appeal to comrades Saturday at the SP party congress for cohesion in the crown pandemic.
The resigned SP president Christian Levrat was honored by his Freiburg colleague Alain Berset.
Photo: Georgios Kefalas (Keystone)
There is no alternative to rigorous compliance with the authorities’ recommendations to emerge relatively unscathed from the pandemic, the Health Minister said in a video message. Yes, everyone is tired of the crown, yes, the masks are tedious. “But what is the alternative?” Berset asked.
If it encloses vulnerable women, pregnant women, asthmatics and the elderly, that “would no longer be the Switzerland to which we are committed.” The virus should not be delegated to the vulnerable. “We have no choice if we want to live as normally as possible, if we want to remain a just society.”
The time of solidarity is just beginning, continues Berset. Switzerland is in the midst of the biggest crisis since World War II, which is testing the country’s solidarity.
The SP Federal Council, however, was convinced that the virus had physically separated people, but allowed them to grow socially. “We are not a collection of individuals, we are not a pure commercial location. We are there for each other when needed. “
Federal Councilor Alain Berset spoke to delegates at the SP party conference via video message.
Photo: Georgios Kefalas (Keystone)
