Zurich Zurich's middle-class want to pass on asylum costs to the federal government
Zurich's conservatives want a redistribution of asylum costs: the federal government should pay everything, the canton and municipalities nothing more. On Monday, the Zurich Cantonal Council provisionally supported a corresponding proposal for a parliamentary initiative.
09.09.2024, 12:09
SDA
The parliamentary initiative (PI) from the SVP and FDP received 71 votes. This is enough for provisional support, which requires 60 votes. The issue will now go to the responsible committee, which will draw up a draft. Only in a second round will parliament then make a definitive decision on whether Zurich will present itself to Bern by means of a state initiative.
"We feel let down by the federal government"
"The municipalities carry out, pay and have nothing to say," said Roman Schmid (SVP, Opfikon), explaining the motion. Everything is delegated downwards. "We feel abandoned by the federal government." Therefore, the sender, i.e. the federal government, should pay for everything itself. However, only the FDP and EDU were of the same opinion.
All other parliamentary groups did not support the proposal. The FDP and SVP had enough representatives in the national parliaments. "Do your unsympathetic politics in Bern, because that's where it belongs," said Jasmin Pokerschnig (Greens, Zurich).
For the GLP, the proposal was "profiling and symbolic politics". Andrea Gisler (Gossau) said that the federal councillors from the SVP and FDP had it in their hands last December to take over the asylum dossier and make everything better. However, they had not wanted to do this. In addition, it was not the case that the federal government had not yet contributed to the costs.
"They want to put people in camps"
The AL also suspected "yet more propaganda". Lisa Letnansky (Zurich) said it was incomprehensible that the party with the most seats in the National Council was submitting a standing initiative. "They simply don't want to invest any more money," she said to the SVP. "They don't want to distribute people in communities, they want to put them in camps." This reminded her of dark times. The proposal is a complete rejection of solidarity.
