The politicians complain about the lack of friendliness and light the hall of Bernexpo where they work during the summer session.
The parliamentarians will leave the halls of Bernexpo to reach the Palace of the federal government.
ats-Keystone
The forced exodus of mps to Bernexpo must end at the same time as the summer session. The impatience is palpable for a return to the Palace federal, brighter, more user-friendly and more conducive to alliances.
Spread a good distance from each other on a surface up to roughly the size of a football field, the parliamentarians have sometimes felt a little alone. They are nostalgic of their federal house and can’t wait to go home.
Has Bernexpo, “it’s virtually impossible to see the light of day”, a late Christian Lüscher (PLR/GE). If the light is missing, the space allows all members to benefit from his own pulpit, to more than two meters distance from its neighbours. A good image of the distant sessions as usual, where only 70 centimetres separate the parliamentarians.
Loss of user-friendliness
For Daniel Brelaz (Green/VD), the place of Parliament is not really in a “gigantic exhibition hall”, but this solution is there to troubleshoot. Has Bernexpo, the 200 members of parliament have an area of about 5200 square meters and the 46 senators of 800 square meters. A necessity at the time of the coronavirus, while the social distancing is required.
This solution has allowed Parliament to resume its rights, for an extraordinary session in may and for the summer session, without endangering the health of its members. Between the grey walls of Bernexpo, the swiss policy has, however, lost its usability, which is key to the consensus of the helvetic confederation, stressed Isabelle Chevalley (PVL/VD).
A quiet, lifeless atmosphere. After each speaker, the desks are disinfected, and the plastic protectors of the pickups changed. Not low mass as possible between neighbors, not room not lost to conclude an alliance at the last minute. Out of the sitting room, the members intersect little, regretted Pierre-André Page (UDC/EN), for which the experience is unpleasant.
“Small figures in the distance”
This very different atmosphere has made alliances more difficult, found Isabelle Moret (PLR/VD). The president of the National regretted “the distance and the coldness of the room”. From its pulpit, the parliamentarians were more than “small figures in the distance”, sometimes unrecognizable.
Not being able always to identify them, the canton of Vaud has asked the authors of questions to the government to manifest visibly in order to indicate their presence.
In September, the Parliament should re-sit in the plenum in the federal house. A plan for a pandemic is being developed in order to organise the return. Beyond the current crisis, it will allow the institution to be better prepared for such crises in the future, stressed Isabelle Moret.
For the time being, the parliamentarians do not know what it will look like the next session. The working conditions may not be those to which they are accustomed, has warned Samuel Bendahan (PS/VD). Only certainty, the commissions will be able to regain their former neighbourhoods on Monday.
(ATS)
Published today at 10: 24-
