Now only a few centrist votes are missing, and things could get really uncomfortable for Asylum Minister Beat Jans.
The FDP leadership with party president Thierry Burkart (second from left) presented their ideas on asylum policy as early as 2023.
Peter Schneider / Keystone
Thierry Burkart chose clear words to announce his party’s new asylum policy after the summer break. The FDP president wants to tighten the screws practically everywhere in the area of migration. Anyone whose life and limb are threatened must be granted asylum. He promised a tougher approach for all others who enter Switzerland illegally. “The abuse of our asylum system is taking on extreme forms,” said Burkart in an interview with the NZZ.
The FDP has long been trying to set the tone in migration policy under the motto “hard but fair”. But nobody really wanted to believe the liberals. After Burkart’s announcement, criticism from the left immediately rained down. The FDP, it was not entirely selfless concern, was moving closer to the SVP with this shrill style. The SVP, on the other hand, saw its unique selling point in danger. Thomas Aeschi said before the session that he did not believe that the FDP would follow the words of its president with actions and support the SVP’s asylum applications.
Jans points the finger at Keller-Sutter
Now the SVP parliamentary group leader and all those who doubted the discipline of the sometimes very idiosyncratic FDP National Council members have been proven wrong. In the extraordinary asylum session on Tuesday, the FDP parliamentary group followed all of the SVP’s motions, which sought to tighten existing asylum and immigration laws. The signal was clear: the FDP supports Burkart’s new asylum policy.
However, given the narrow majority, the FDP and SVP were unable to form a majority together. Two SVP members were excused. On the FDP side, Vaud National Councillor Laurent Wehrli opted out. The President of the Foreign Affairs Committee abstained from the important votes or voted against them. In addition, two or three National Councillors missed the votes, including the parliamentary group leader Damien Cottier. From the perspective of the otherwise disciplined group, this was annoying – and above all embarrassing.
For example, an SVP motion that wanted to take tougher action against secondary migration was rejected by 94 votes to 89 with two abstentions. This was intended to prevent so-called asylum tourism, whereby migrants cross several safe countries before applying for asylum in Switzerland. Another proposal by the People’s Party was rejected by 97 votes to 90 with three abstentions. This would have tasked the Federal Council with creating transit zones together with the border cantons, which applicants would not be allowed to leave until a decision was made. Just a year ago, the FDP parliamentary group unanimously rejected a similar motion by the SVP.
Two other SVP motions were passed without any problems in the extraordinary asylum session because the center party, along with the FDP, also joined in unanimously. Firstly, the Federal Council is to take measures – against its will – so that cantons, municipalities and social welfare and insurance companies can exchange relevant data on migrants who have entered Switzerland illegally. This should make it possible to track down and deport migrants who are staying in Switzerland illegally and have gone into hiding.
On the other hand, the bourgeois majority does not want those granted temporary admission to be allowed to bring their family members to Switzerland. It makes no sense, especially since those granted temporary admission are rejected asylum seekers who cannot be immediately returned to their country of origin and are – in fact – only staying in Switzerland temporarily. The Council majority suspects that this provisional status is being abused by economic migrants. It will be interesting to see how the Federal Council will deal with this motion, assuming it also finds a majority in the Council of States. From the government’s point of view, the motion is not compatible with the Federal Constitution.
While the FDP kept a low profile during the emotional debates in the Council, it was itself repeatedly targeted. The SP accused it of having made a U-turn on family reunification. After the debate, the SP also criticized the center. The National Council had abolished the “fundamental human right to family life” with the help of the “Family Party,” sneered the permanently outraged SP National Councilor Fabian Molina on X. But FDP Federal Councilor Karin Keller-Sutter was also drawn into the debate – implicitly, but by none other than her Federal Council colleague Beat Jans.
In response to a benevolent question from SP National Councillor Min Li Marti about how the many pending asylum applications had come about in the first place, Jans made a point of referring to the year 2022. At that time, however, the asylum structures had been put under additional strain by the refugees from Ukraine, the SP Federal Councillor added. But the Council got the message, probably due to the tectonics of power: the SP Federal Councillors – first Elisabeth Baume-Schneider and now Jans – inherited this “accumulation of pending cases” from the then FDP asylum minister.
«Quick fixes»
Whether it was wise of Jans to drag his Federal Council colleague into the asylum debate in this way is debatable. He himself appeared tense and uncertain for long stretches. Around half a dozen officials from the Justice Department were present in the National Council chamber. During the course of the debate, they presented their boss with new documents and talked to him. Jans tried to use the same key statements in his statements that he had already made in an interview with the CH Media newspapers over the weekend.
It is good that the asylum system is being debated, but he sees no reason for “quick fixes”. This is how the Minister of Justice describes the motion tool with which Parliament can give the government a leg up. If the FDP sticks to the course it has chosen and continues to present itself as a united front in the National Council, things could get tough for Jans on asylum issues. In the future, a few votes from the centre will be enough and the “quick fix” of the extraordinary asylum session will become the new normal.
