It’s part of politics that debates in parliament sometimes get toxic. For the Greens, however, the discussion about increasing the army on Monday went far too far: “Civil national councils, that’s enough!” Wrote the parliamentary group of the Greens on Twitter during the debate.
The trigger was dealing with the Greens parliamentary group spokeswoman Marionna Schlatter (41), who had to face poisonous questions from political opponents in the debate. An aggressive Marianne Binder (63, center) asked whether she had read the army documents at all. Or her party colleague Thomas Rechsteiner (60) threw at her that she should please admit that she wanted the army to be abolished.
Hurter doffs the Greens’ hats
For the Greens, SVP National Councilor Thomas Hurter (58) was the last straw: he asked why Schlatter was on the Security Policy Commission at all. After all, she didn’t want to give the army any money, even though the people had spoken out in favor of the army three times. “Disrespectful, undemocratic and unworthy of a parliament,” criticized the Greens. The Green National Council President Irène Kälin (35) also called on the middle-class half of the Council to stay on task.
“I find it questionable that the other side has left the ground of factual politics,” said Schlatter. But she also sees it as a sign of strength that ten of her political opponents attacked her with questions. “Obviously I’ve hit a sore point: there is simply no concept of how the additional two billion francs in the army budget should be used.”
Hurter has nothing to do with the criticism. “If you distribute in the council chamber and make allegations in the room, as Schlatter did, you also have to put up with questions,” says the SVP National Council to Blick. He does not accept the accusation that Schlatter’s legitimacy was questioned. “I would have simply expected a more constructive contribution to the debate from a commissioner.”
“Yesterday’s Cold War”
It’s not the first time that Schlatter has become the face of left-wing security politics: She is also involved in the group’s Stop F-35 initiative for a Switzerland without an army (GSoA). The Greens support the concern that opposes the purchase of American fighter jets. Schlatter, who appears in the campaign material with a photo, was overwhelmed by the statement “The Cold War was yesterday”. FDP President Thierry Burkart (46) used her likeness to call for the withdrawal of the initiative via Twitter.
“I’m a red rag for the bourgeoisie,” says the Green National Councilor and member of the Security Policy Commission. She suspects that this has to do with the fact that, as a left-wing woman in security policy, she is the exception. “To specifically question my competence is a typical reflex of older, middle-class gentlemen.”
SP sent a second guard
Here the left, there the bourgeois Stahlhelm parliamentary group – Mauro Tuena (50), SVP National Councilor and President of the Security Policy Commission, does not contradict this distribution. “Marionna Schlatter is on the left edge in terms of security policy and is therefore polarizing in a middle-class body,” he says. He suspects that Schlatter became such a target in Monday’s debate because she was the only left-wing speaker with a decidedly critical attitude towards the army.
In fact, the two SP spokesmen Franziska Roth (56) and Pierre-Alain Fridez (64) each demonstratively stated that they personally did not support the demand for the abolition of the army – although this was in the party program.
Schlatter, on the other hand, is more evasive about being called an army abolitionist. “The population has voted against abolishing the army several times,” she notes. “Of course I respect this decision.”