Farmers’ representatives in Parliament put Jans and Pult on the spot
Published: Monday, Dec 4th 2023, 04:50
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The two Federal Council candidates Jon Pult and Beat Jans will be heard by the Conference of Farmers' Parliamentarians on Monday (today). The farmers want to know how Pult and Jans would help shape agricultural policy as future Federal Councillors.
"Each candidate has ten minutes to introduce themselves, to say something about agriculture and where they want to go in terms of agricultural policy," said National Councillor and Farmers' President Markus Ritter on Schweizer Radio SRF's Saturday show. Afterwards, the members of the conference could ask questions for 20 minutes.
The relationship between the two candidates for the Federal Council and agriculture has been a major topic in the media for days. As a left-wing agricultural specialist, Beat Jans is said to have the farming lobby against him because, among other things, he fought for the abolition of animal contributions as a National Councillor. Jon Pult, on the other hand, is said to have angered the farming community when his PR agency launched a campaign against the agricultural industry in the summer of 2020 in the run-up to the drinking water and pesticide initiatives.
On Monday, the two will now be put through their paces by the agricultural representatives. Ritter said that one criterion for the agricultural representatives will certainly be whether a future Federal Councillor shows a willingness to "interfere" with SVP Agriculture Minister Guy Parmelin with so-called co-reports. In addition, it was also important whether the two candidates "reached the people".
According to Ritter, the Conference of Farmers' Members of Parliament - consisting of 40 members - would also have invited the Greens' candidate for the Federal Council, Gerhard Andrey (FR), to a hearing. This was if Andrey were to run for the vacant SP seat. However, as the Greens wanted to contest an FDP seat, Andrey did not receive an invitation. According to Ritter, the farmers' representation in parliament is "somewhat state-oriented" and does not want to vote out any incumbent members of the Federal Council.
The Federal Council candidates will then be heard by the Federal Council parliamentary groups on Tuesday afternoon.
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