Bern People from Bern should continue to be allowed to be part of the city government
People from Bern should continue to be allowed to sit on Bern's municipal government. This is the opinion of the municipal council. It rejects a motion from the ranks of the Young Alternative.
02.07.2024, 08:31
SDA
For the Young Party, it is "questionable in terms of democratic policy" that people who live in Bern can be members of two municipalities. People who belong to the Burgergemeinde already have a great deal of influence and can then exercise even more power as a member of the municipal council. This needs to change.
The city government takes a different view, as can be seen from its recently published response. It is neither sensible nor legally permissible to exclude Bernburger from a municipal council mandate.
Those who are elected to the municipal council are usually well networked and connected to organizations that are influenced by municipal council decisions in one way or another. In comparison, any conflicts of interest on the part of Bernburg residents did not appear to be particularly serious.
In addition, excluding Bernburg residents from municipal council mandates would probably violate overriding law, writes the municipal government. Among other things, it refers to Article 37 of the Federal Constitution, according to which no one may be favored or disadvantaged because of their civil rights. The term "civil rights" also refers to citizenship.
There are currently two Bernese citizens on the municipal council: Alec von Graffenried (GFL) and Michael Aebersold (SP). The left-wing majority of the city council has often been critical of Bernburg residents.
At the end of 2023, it proposed merging the residents' and citizens' municipalities in a postulate. However, the initiative has no concrete consequences. This is because the cantonal constitution would have to be amended to abolish the Burgergemeinde in the canton of Bern.
