The political cards are being reshuffled in Basel-Stadt
Published: Monday, Oct 7th 2024, 09:40
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In the canton of Basel-Stadt, the political cards along the left-right divide in government and parliament will be reshuffled on October 20. While the seven incumbents are expected to be confirmed in the elections to the cantonal government, there could be a shift in the balance in the elections to the cantonal parliament.
Over the past four years, the political landscape in Basel-Stadt has been characterized by stalemates between the left-wing and green parties and the bourgeois forces. While the Left-Greens narrowly missed out on an absolute majority in the Grand Council four years ago, the 2020 elections marked the end of the 16-year Red-Green majority in the government.
At that time, the Green Liberal candidate, Esther Keller, ousted the previous Green government councillor Elisabeth Ackermann from the government. For four years now, Keller has occupied a central position between three Social Democrats and three government councillors from the middle-class parties LDP and Mitte.
Intact chances of re-election for the incumbents
All seven incumbents are standing for re-election. In addition to Keller, these are the longest-serving government representative Lukas Engelberger (center), Conradin Cramer and Stephanie Eymann (both LDP) as well as Tanja Soland, Kaspar Sutter and Mustafa Atici (all SP), who was only elected in April to replace Federal Councillor Beat Jans.
Theoretically at least, they are under pressure from two candidates each from the left-green and centre-right camps. However, they are considered to have little chance of success.
The FDP is fielding Eva Biland, a doctor and former municipal councillor from Bettingen, who is largely unknown at cantonal level. For the SVP, which has little influence in Basel-Stadt, lawyer and member of the cantonal parliament Stefan Suter is making a second attempt at the candidate carousel after 2020.
On the left, social worker and long-standing member of the Grand Council Oliver Bolliger from the left-wing party Basta and the Green candidate and lawyer Anina Ineichen, who has only been a member of the Grand Council for just under three years, will take votes away from each other. The Greens have terminated their long-standing alliance with Basta.
Weight shifts possible in parliament
The Greens - then still in an alliance with Basta - and the Green Liberals emerged as the big winners from the 2020 elections to the Grand Council, winning four seats each. The GLP was even able to double its number of seats to eight, while the Green Alternatives were able to make up for the seats lost by the SP.
This left the SP and the GAB with 48 seats. They therefore once again narrowly missed out on an absolute majority in the hundred-member council.
The SVP and the FDP were among the biggest losers four years ago, losing four and three seats respectively. Together with the EPP, the conservative camp ended up with 42 seats.
GLP as an influential tip of the scales
The GLP should be able to continue to play its role as the tip of the scales in the coming legislative period. There are also no ground-breaking shifts on either side of the left-right divide.
However, this does not mean that there may well be certain shifts in weight. For example, the Greens must expect that, as at federal level and in other cantons, they will not be able to maintain their historic top result of 2020. On the other hand, the SVP can hope to regain at least some of its strength.
A total of 870 candidates on 16 lists want to enter parliament. Among them, no fewer than 96 incumbents are running again.
©Keystone/SDA
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