FDP attacks supremacy of the center in the Council of States in Valais
Published: Monday, Nov 6th 2023, 14:07
Updated At: Tuesday, Nov 7th 2023, 00:54
العودة إلى البث المباشر
In the second round of voting for the Council of States in Valais on November 12, FDP National Councillor Philippe Nantermod is challenging the two incumbents Beat Rieder and Marianne Maret from the center. Toppling this bastion is likely to be difficult given the results of the first round.
The two centrist politicians Rieder (52,748 votes) and Maret (43,204) were well ahead of the independent Nantermod (25,145) in the first round, who was around 18,000 votes behind. "I'm not promising you victory, I'm promising you the fight," said Nantermod before his party's decision to send him back into the race for the second round.
SVP National Councillor Jean-Luc Addor (23,371 votes) threw in the towel immediately after the results were announced on October 22. He had announced several times during the election campaign that he would not take part in the second round of voting if he did not finish higher than fourth place in the first round.
The Green Party member Céline Dessimoz (13,704) has also decided not to run in the second round. Her party believes that "the results of the first ballot are sufficiently clear". The SP, whose candidates also withdrew from the race, spoke of a "second ballot that seems superfluous".
Both the Greens and the SP refrained from making an election recommendation. Both parties are calling on their supporters to "vote in line with their values". The Green Liberals have also withdrawn their candidate and are not making an election recommendation.
The voters of the SP, Greens and Green Liberals could prefer the only candidate in the race whose Smartvote profile is closer to their concerns than that of the FDP. The social democratic women in French-speaking Valais called for Maret to be elected. If she were not elected, the representation of the Valais under the Federal Palace dome would be a purely male affair.
The SVP is divided. While the Upper Valais section supports Nantermod, the French-speaking section did not want to make an election recommendation. They disliked the FDP politician's positions during the coronavirus pandemic.
Not the first attack
The Council of States in Valais has always been a bastion of the center. Since the 1860s, voters have always elected two centrist representatives (formerly CVP, CSP, KK and KVP) to Bern. For the first time, one of the two seats was filled by a woman in 2019.
Nantermod is not the first to want to topple the dominance of the center in the Valais parliament. The Social Democrat Mathias Reynard came closest to this goal in 2019, when he failed in the second round of voting by just 1,370 votes.
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