SP nominates Mustafa Atici for Basel government by-election
Published: Wednesday, Dec 20th 2023, 23:30
Updated At: Wednesday, Dec 20th 2023, 23:30
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On Wednesday evening, the SP Basel-Stadt nominated Mustafa Atici for the government council replacement election on March 3, 2024. The delegates decided in favor of the former National Councillor with 132 out of 194 votes. He is now in the running to succeed Beat Jans.
After Jans was elected to the Federal Council on December 13, a seat in the Basel government and the presidency of the government will have to be filled.
Atici won the race within the party against Edibe Gölgeli, who received 56 votes. Atici, a 54-year-old businessman, was not re-elected in the federal elections in October after four years as a member of the National Council because the city-canton lost a seat. At that time, he achieved the second-best result in the canton with over 20,000 votes.
Like Gölgeli, Atici also has Kurdish roots and, if elected to the government, would be the first Basel executive member with a migration background. Now there is a chance that he could make history "as the first Mustafa in a Swiss cantonal government", Atici said at the delegates' meeting.
Atici was also interested in running for the Federal Council this year. However, he withdrew in favor of his Basel party colleague Beat Jans.
Criticism of the Greens from the SP
On Wednesday morning, the Greens also announced that they would be contesting the vacant SP government seat. They are sending Jérôme Thiriet, a member of the Grand Council, into the race. The decision of the alliance partners was a talking point at the SP delegates' meeting.
Lisa Mathys, President of the SP in Basel, described the Green Party's candidacy as "lacking in strategy". "The close cooperation was called into question today by the Green Party board," she said. A joint strategy to regain a red-green majority is also questionable. "Apparently, the Green Party board is putting its own interests above this strategic goal," said Mathys.
It is still unclear who the conservative parties will nominate. The FDP and SVP, which, like the Greens, are not represented in the Basel executive, have signaled their intentions. The left-wing party Basta had already withdrawn from the race, ruling out the candidacy of National Councillor Sibel Arslan.
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