FDP Geneva seeks civil alliance
Cantonal elections – On Thursday evening, the delegates of the FDP Geneva nominated the former State Councilor Nathalie Fontanet and Anne Hiltpold, member of the Carouge executive, for the 2023 government council elections.
The party will enter into an alliance with the center party and the SVP in the first ballot. The FDP delegates approved the motion by 120 votes to 2 with 7 abstentions.
It remains to be seen whether the center party and the SVP will give the green light to the conservative alliance. So far, the center party has expressed reservations. “We stretched out our hand,” said Bertrand Reich, President of the FDP Geneva.
Target civic alliance
The bourgeois parties absolutely must win back the majority in the Council of State, which they would have lost with the election of the Green Fabienne Fischer. Despite the different positions of the parties, it is important to build bridges.
Reich referred to the recent successes of bourgeois alliances in the cantonal elections in Vaud, Fribourg, Neuchâtel and Bern. A party member warned at the delegates’ meeting not to ally with the SVP. Contradicting the values of the FDP.
Former National Councilor Jacques-Simon Eggly countered that a distinction should be made between federal and cantonal elections. “The FDP Geneva will gain a second seat in the State Council and in the Great Council,” emphasized Reich.
Ticket with two candidates
The FDP is the strongest party in the canton of Geneva. But they cannot form a majority on their own. The Green Liberals, who rejected an alliance with the SVP, do not fit into this strategy. At the recommendation of the Bureau, the delegates opted for a ticket with two candidates instead of three.
State Councilor Nathalie Fontanet, who is applying for a second term, received 146 votes, followed by Anne Hiltpold with 90 votes. MP Pierre Nicollier was eliminated from the race. The delegates of the FDP Geneva finally unanimously confirmed the list of 65 candidates for election to the Grand Council.
The FDP Geneva will also enter into an alliance with the center and the SVP for the federal elections, which will take place in autumn 2023. The delegates unanimously approved a list of the six FDP candidates for the National Council. The list includes the incumbent Simone de Montmollin and the councilors Cyril Aellen, Diane Barbier-Müller and Alexandre de Senarclens as well as Véronique Kampfen and Lionel Halpérin.