Swiss chief of Evangelical Alliance goes to Parliament

The current chief of the Swiss Evangelical Alliance (SEA), Marc Jost, will switch to politics full-time in the future. The 48-year-old succeeds Bernese MP Marianne Streiff. She has worked for the Protestant People’s Party (EPP) since 2010 in the Federal Parliament. Streiff leaves the National Council on 30 November to “give someone else the chance to help shape coexistence in our country”.

For the SEA, Jost’s new task has personal consequences. He will resign from his position as Co-Secretary General. In his place comes the 33-year-old theologian Viviane Krucker-Baud. In the future, she will form dual leadership with the current Secretary General Andi Bachmann-Roth and thus become the first female Secretary-General in the history of the SEA. In a SEA press release, she is quoted as saying: “SEA’s mission has long been one of my heartfelt concerns. From my experience, I know how powerful it is when churches stand together despite different styles of piety.”

New task at SEA

However, Jost himself will remain with the alliance. For him, the position of Commissioner for “Public Affairs” is created. This includes representing SEA in the “Stop Poverty” campaign of the Swiss Christian organisation Interaction, Christian Public Affairs, the Board of Trustees of the Code of Ethics and the Board of Directors of Idea Switzerland, of which he himself is a member.

Currently, the EPP is represented with three seats in the National Council. With 200 members, the National Council forms the “grand chamber” of the Swiss Parliament. Together with the Council of States (46 members), the National Council forms the Federal Assembly with its seat in the Bernese Federal House.

This article is translated by CNE.news and was earlier published in the German magazine Pro Medienmagazin.