The members of the PDC of Valais Romand gathered in congress in Conthey accepted Thursday evening by a large majority to rename the party. It will henceforth be called Le Centre, like the national party.
The name Le Center Valais romand was accepted by 328 votes against 20 and 7 abstentions (counting as no) during a show of hands. A qualified two-thirds majority was thus reached.
“The name change is not an end in itself. It’s the start of a long process,” said PDCVr President Joachim Rausis before the vote. “There will be a lot of work to do on the level of party structures and activism. We must learn to do politics differently,” he said.
The pros and the cons
A dozen members took the floor to defend or oppose the change of name, including Marianne Maret. The State Councilor had refused the change of name during the assembly of delegates of the Swiss PDC, she then changed her mind.
As elected in Bern, she has “walked” with this new name and it is “not so unpleasant to wear”, she admitted. The senator also sees in this change the opportunity for the party to realize that it lost the absolute majority in the Council of State during the 2021 elections and that it is now a question of being “more offensive, more visible”.
National Councilor Benjamin Roduit, also initially opposed to the name change, then distanced himself from the subject until he was in favor of it. “There is no Christian politics or Christian values that are left or right,” he said, “renaming is no longer a theme provided our values are at the heart of all of our decisions.
Deputy Grand Council member Patricia Meylan opposed the change of name. “I am a Christian Democrat because I feel like a Christian Democrat and to turn my back on the term Christian is to turn my back on our culture,” she argued.
Committee supported
By accepting the new name, the congress supported the party’s steering committee, which had previously voted in favor by 11 votes to 1 and one abstention. The committee relied in particular on the work of a think tank.
The latter, set up the day after the cantonal elections of 2021 and the loss by the PDC of the absolute majority in the Council of State, notably worked on the change of name. He conducted an internal survey in which more than 900 members participated, 73% of whom were in favor of the new name.
As for the Young Christian Democrats of Valais Romand, they paved the way a week ago by accepting the change of name by 36 votes to 1 and 1 abstention, now calling themselves the Young people of the Center Valais Romand.
Until 2025
Approved in November 2020, the name change at the national level came about following the merger between the PDC and the PBD. The cantonal sections have until 2025 to decide.
All the French-speaking sections have opted for Le Centre, except the Jura which announced last November that it will not make a decision before the end of 2022.
This article has been published automatically. Source: ats