Citizens take over the finances in Bern's municipal council

The new mayor Marieke Kruit (SP) will take over the presidential directorate ex officio, as the municipal council announced on Monday. The dethroned mayor Alec von Graffenried (GFL) is moving to the Directorate for Safety, Environment and Energy. He will also become Deputy Mayor.

Matthias Aebischer (SP) will take over the Directorate of Civil Engineering, Transport and Urban Greenery and Ursina Anderegg (Green Alliance) the Directorate of Education, Social Affairs and Sport.

Municipal elections were held in the city of Bern at the end of November. Only two of the five incumbent members of the municipal council stood for re-election, namely Marieke Kruit and Alec von Graffenried. Franziska Teuscher (Green Alliance), Michael Aebersold (SP) and Reto Nause (center) will step down at the end of the year.

For the municipal council elections, the centre-right parties stood united for the first time against the traditional red-green-centre bloc in the hope of winning a second municipal council seat. However, their hopes were dashed. Red-Green will continue to hold four of the five seats. In the election for the office of mayor, the incumbent mayor Alec von Graffenried was defeated by his challenger Marieke Kruit.