Jans and Pult to appear before farmers’ representatives in Parliament on Monday
Published: Saturday, Dec 2nd 2023, 13:10
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The Conference of Farmers' Parliamentarians will listen to the two SP Federal Council candidates Beat Jans and Jon Pult on Monday morning in the Federal Palace. This was announced on Saturday by the President of the Swiss Farmers' Union, Markus Ritter, a member of the National Council from the center of St. Gallen.
"Each candidate has ten minutes to introduce themselves, to say something about agriculture and where they want to go in agricultural policy," said Ritter on the Saturday show on Schweizer Radio SRF 1, after which the members of the conference can ask questions for 20 minutes.
In response to the radio journalist's comment that the Basel candidate Jans was not considered electable by many farmers, Ritter said that it would be important to see whether the two candidates "reached the people". The talks on Monday afternoon in the lobby of the Federal Palace were also important.
In this respect, it is too early to say anything about the chances of the two SP candidates. The hearing on Monday morning will be very important for the farmers in Parliament. Ritter also 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.
According to Ritter, the conference of farmers' members of parliament would also have invited the Greens' candidate for the Federal Council, Gerhard Andrey (FR), to a hearing. This would be the case if Andrey were to run for the vacant SP seat. Because that would be an "interesting candidacy", according to the St. Gallen centrist National Councillor.
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. According to the "Bauernzeitung", the Conference of Farmers' Parliamentarians has 40 members.
©Keystone/SDA
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