At least six people died in Switzerland during violent storms and torrential rains that swept the country last week, local authorities announced. Faced with this tragedy, the Swiss Green Party raised its voice to denounce the slowness of the country’s authorities in taking concrete measures for climate protection.
Aline Trede, current head of the Swiss Greens group in Parliament, called on the authorities in these terms: “Instead of walking around with journalists, Federal Councilor Rösti would do better to draw the consequences of last week’s bad weather and respect the popular will to protect the climate.”
The toll from bad weather rose to six deaths, after the discovery of a body a few days ago in Ticino, the canton in the south-east of the country which pays the heaviest human toll.
“The body of a person” was found on Wednesday in the Maggia river, the same area where another body was found the day before, Ticino police said in a statement. The body was recovered by a helicopter.
In a press release published on their site, the Greens expressed their solidarity and all their sympathy to the relatives of the victims while pointing the finger at the country’s authorities for their share of responsibility in this tragedy.
“Several people died due to bad weather over the past weeks in Switzerland. Tragic events for us and for society. With all its might, nature fought its way through.
Politics, and first and foremost the federal councilor in charge of the matter, would have the task of drawing conclusions and responding to them by taking ambitious measures to protect the climate. Federal Councilor Rösti’s emblematic refusal to tackle this is irresponsible. Especially since the population clearly accepted the climate protection law last year, but the implementation of which is completely insufficient.”
The Greens also expect the federal councilor to provide more support to the cantons and municipalities to adapt to ever more frequent weather extremes. “Indeed, the cantons and municipalities do not have to bear the cost of government inaction without the support of the Confederation,” they denounced.
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