Online reports – Politics – “I am the elected president and there is no other question”

© Photo by Peter Knechtli, OnlineReports.ch

“I am not a wing politician”: Basel-Landschaft FDP leader Schenker

Basel-Landschaft FDP President Saskia Schenker on her role as designated director of the Basel Employers' Association

From Peter Knechtli

Although she has only been in office for a year, Saskia Schenker (40) will remain President of the FDP Baselland from January 2021 following her election as Director of the Employers' Association of Basel. Her goals now are the municipal elections and the consolidation of the cantonal party.

Online reports: Ms Schenker, you are FDP President, District Councillor and, in a year, Director of the Basel Employers’ Association – a heavy workload.

Saskia Schenker: I can't judge that today. I have 80 percent representation in the employers' association, so that my political mandates are also properly regulated. But that is a position that you can hold at any time and in which you don't work with a time clock.

Online reports: You have announced that you want to keep your mandate as district administrator. Will you soon be stepping down as FDP president?

Donor: No. I will also keep the FDP presidency. I took over the presidency at a very intense time and led the party through the elections. Now the local elections are coming up. It is important to me and it is part of strong party leadership that the party positions itself well with a view to the elections in four years.

Online reports: Can you say how long you want to remain at the head of the FDP Baselland?

Donor: No, I can't say. I am the elected president and there is no other question at the moment.

Online reports: Does that mean that a resignation within the next year is not foreseeable?

Donor: No. I can understand that the question has come up now. But it is a question that does not arise now.

“I will now position the party well
into the local elections.”

Online reports: How do you intend to prevent whispers about your successor from going on behind the scenes in the party?

Donor: I am the elected president of the FDP Baselland and will continue this work with full commitment, as I showed last year.

Online reports: Over the past four years, there has been considerable unrest and rotation in the party leadership.

Donor: This is true since Paul Hofer, my predecessor, took office. Before that, there were six years of continuity under the leadership of Christine Frey.

Online reports: What is the next goal you want to achieve as FDP President?

Donor: I will now lead the party well positioned for the local elections next spring. We have been in close contact with the sections since the summer in preparation. The FDP is very strong at the local level, as the many FDP local council presidents show.

Online reports: Are there communities in which the FDP has a greater goal than just preserving the status quo?

Donor: Yes, there are communities where we come with more candidates …

Online reports: … which ones?

Donor: I don't want to say anything more about it. The information is provided in the sections.

“I stand for an inclusive way. This one.”
I will continue on like this.

Online reports: What does it mean that with your new role as association director you no longer have to commute to Bern every day?

Donor: That will make things a little easier. Commuting itself isn't the problem, because I was working during that time anyway. But it will be easier to juggle appointments in the region.

Online reports: You took over the FDP Baselland during a stormy phase. There are still internal wings that do not give a coherent picture of the party. How do you want to consolidate the party?

Donor: In my first year as president, I showed and always communicated that I am not a wing politician, but the president of an entire party. Especially in a liberal party, whose DNA is full of many different opinions, I stand for an integrative type of leadership. I will continue down this path.

Online reports: When will your task as FDP President of Basel-Landschaft be fulfilled in terms of content, not timing?

Donor: After a stormy phase, a consolidation phase is now beginning. My job now is to continue to bring calm to the party and to do good, forward-looking personnel work. But when that time comes, I cannot answer that question. This task never ends, it is an ongoing task and is part of responsible leadership.

Online reports: Will you run for the National Council or the government again in four years?

Donor: Oh, I don't know yet. Politics cannot be planned, and that's a good thing.

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7 December 2019

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