Democratic Deficit: The Tunnel, the Millionaires’ Club and its Council of States

The water taxi slowly approaches Kempratner Bay. Wrapped in cool November gray, it has something picturesque about it. If you look at the lakeshore from the boat, you can see stately villas and neatly trimmed lawns behind the reeds and weeping willows. For example, that of Thomas Schmidheiny, the largest shareholder in the cement giant Holcim, whose fortune the business magazine Forbes currently estimates at $7.7 billion. A few hundred meters away you can see one of the most famous construction sites in Switzerland: tennis star Roger Federer is building his seventy million franc property here. Kempraten is popularly known as “millionaire’s hill” because of the many villas down by the lake and up on the slope between the vineyards.

Just about one and a half kilometers further south, around 26,500 vehicles push their way every day along the Untere Bahnhofstrasse directly past the town center of Rapperswil – almost 10,000 more than on the Gotthard. This makes the road the busiest in the canton of St. Gallen. A good year ago, the Rapperswil electorate spoke out in favor of a relief tunnel. But because an entrance is supposed to be near Kempraten, there is resistance on Millionaires’ Hill. WOZ research shows that the super-rich are discreetly trying to thwart the referendum.

Kempraten belongs to the municipality of Rapperswil-Jona, and this always makes political headlines. With almost 30,000 residents, Rapperswil is the largest Swiss city without its own parliament – so there is a lack of democratic control, which makes the political processes vulnerable to the influence of individuals. For example, through the publisher Bruno Hug, who once elevated mayor Martin Stöckling to office. In the meantime he has fallen out with him and now he wants to replace him with the non-party Barbara Dillier, who is close to the SVP. The second round of voting will take place on November 24th, and Dillier from the Zurich Oberland has the best chance of becoming the new mayor. Hug and his aggressive media – formerly the “Obersee Nachrichten”, now the news portal “linth 24” – have twice prevented Rapperswil from finally having a parliament, most recently in March last year.

Numerous portraits have already been published about the dazzling Hug. It is often overlooked that he is by no means the biggest and slipperiest fish in the murky political landscape of Rapperswil. Others also use the lack of control to assert their influence: for example the former mayor and current centrist Councilor of States Benedikt Würth or the multi-billionaire Thomas Schmidheiny. This is exemplified by the planned construction of the city tunnel.

A half round table

The population of Rapperswil-Jona has been struggling for a solution for a long time. In 2011, a project for a city tunnel that would have sent traffic underground failed at the ballot box. The second attempt followed last year: On September 10, 2023, the city population spoke out in favor of continuing the planning of a city tunnel, the SP and the Greens and the VCS traffic club fought against it in vain. In a consultative question about two variants of the tunnel route, voters decided with well over seventy percent of the votes in favor of the so-called middle variant: a long, S-shaped tunnel that would lead from the Seedamm to the A15, which runs north of the city. The variant should have two connections, one in the city center near the Tüchelweiher – and one in the Kempraten residential area.

The vote caused displeasure in the canton of St. Gallen: construction director Susanne Hartmann from the Center party then explained that the result was not binding for the canton, which would have to finance the construction of the tunnel at an estimated cost of one billion francs. The canton is first expecting an overall traffic concept for Rapperswil-Jona. After that, there was public silence around the city tunnel. Behind the scenes, however, the work continued and a new line came into play. It was hatched at a “round table”. However, it was only half round because only the tunnel supporters took part. The meeting took place in January in the house of a former top executive at the consulting firm McKinsey in Kempraten.

In the minutes that those present provided to WOZ upon request, two things stand out: on the one hand, the eleven participants seem to be well-heeled, and on the other hand, practically all of them live in Kempraten. For example, two rich entrepreneurs, one of whom, according to the business magazine “Bilanz”, has assets of almost a quarter of a billion francs. Center Councilor of States Benedikt Würth and FDP National Councilor Marcel Dobler, also a multimillionaire and also living in Kempraten, also took part in the meeting. Publisher Bruno Hug was also there. According to the minutes, Thomas Schmidheiny apologized.

The new lines decided at the “round table” would be similar to the middle variant. With one crucial difference: the exit would be via a connecting tunnel running under the residential area in the “Gubel area or just after the cantonal border”, i.e. one to two kilometers further west. The connection in Kempraten “with its many concerns”, as the self-interests are referred to in the minutes, would no longer apply. In this way, the residents of Millionaire’s Hill would be spared the feared increase in traffic.

Right to be contacted

After the meeting, it was not the “round table” that spoke to the canton of St. Gallen – but an association called “Verkehrsenlastung Rapperswil-Jona” (Verj), which serves as a vehicle for the demands. The function and organization of the association, in which the civil parties previously coordinated their transport policy, are described in detail in the minutes of the Kempratn meeting. Verj “expects” to be contacted by the city and canton as an accompanying body in the key development steps. The association will now be chaired by the Mitte President of Rapperswil-Jona – and by the former SRF business journalist and current PR consultant for the Dynamics Group Marianne Fassbind, who also lives in Kempraten. Those present at the meeting, i.e. the politicians and the villa owners, should in turn form an advisory board for Verj.

Upon request, the canton of St. Gallen confirmed that it was examining “a possible further variant at a very high altitude”. This is fundamentally nothing unusual, explains cantonal engineer Marcel John, who has been supporting the city tunnel project since 2011. We are open to all suggestions. If you simply ignore them, it would certainly lead to criticism at a later date. Cantonal engineer John goes on to say that Verj’s proposal is currently not a “real variant”. We are still a long way from an actual feasibility test, which could take years and cost millions of francs.

However, a document from the canton that is available to WOZ shows that the authorities are taking the association’s demands seriously. At the end of May there was a meeting between representatives of the city of Rapperswil-Jona and the canton of St. Gallen. Building department head Susanne Hartmann and mayor Martin Stöckling were there. In addition to illustrations of the various possible variants, the document also shows a “possible result of a cost-effectiveness analysis”. On the one hand, a more in-depth examination of Verj’s proposal would “call into question” the referendum, and on the other hand, Verj’s concerns would be “taken seriously”. The association has already registered opposition to the middle variant, it goes on to say: “How are the city and canton dealing with it? Can the city and canton afford this ‘headwind’?”

Is everything completely harmless?

The canton itself confirms that Thomas Schmidheiny in particular is taken seriously: construction director Susanne Hartmann met with him personally in May 2023. She says it was “a general exchange about the Rapperswil-Joner traffic problems”. The building department emphasizes that the meeting took place before the consultative vote on the variants. Nevertheless, the question remains why Schmidheiny enjoys privileged access to the responsible government councilor.

Schmidheiny would definitely be personally affected by a tunnel connection in Kempraten. He apologized for taking part in the “round table”. As Council of States Benedikt Würth confirmed upon request, he discussed the tunnel with him. National Councilor Marcel Dobler, in turn, says that it is important to have someone like Schmidheiny involved in a project like the city tunnel. “If he were to oppose it, it would of course make implementation much more difficult.”

It wouldn’t be the first time that Schmidheiny, who is also one of the FDP Switzerland’s largest private patrons, has gotten involved in local politics. It was largely thanks to Schmidheiny that the city tunnel, which was supposed to lead to Kempraten, was rejected in 2011. The financial support was crucial, says Urs Bernhardsgrütter, who led the No camp at the time. “Otherwise we would have lost the vote.” Together with Bruno Hug, Schmidheiny also campaigned this September for the new Lido outdoor and indoor swimming pool in Rapperswil, which was voted on at the same time as the city council election. The campaign also served to fundamentally criticize Martin Stöckling’s administration.

If the details of Schmidheiny’s role in the planning remain open, Benedikt Würth’s role is clear. He not only took part in the Kempratn meeting, but also discussed “technical questions” with the civil engineer Thomas Kieliger, who was appointed by the city and canton to investigate the tunnel, as Würth himself explains when asked. The responsible cantonal engineer Marcel John knew nothing about this meeting. His public statements stand in sharp contrast to Würth’s activities. When he resigned as mayor in 2011, he said he wanted to stay out of local politics. He only gave one interview before the tunnel vote. After that, Würth told the “Linth-Zeitung” that he would “be quiet again and no longer comment on municipal issues.”

A Council of States that, contrary to the population’s decision, advocates a new line for the local rich in a consultative vote, that, contrary to its public statements, continues to be involved in local politics: viewed from the outside, such behavior seems more than questionable. For Benedikt Würth, who was socialized in the Rapperswil political biotope, none of this is a problem: “I’m active as a citizen, there’s nothing wrong with that.” He is simply involved in Rapperswil’s transport policy in a completely harmless way, “because without traffic relief there are no real improvements for the urban space and thus for the quality of life.” He also always made it clear that he wanted to continue to do this as a member of the Council of States. When asked, he cannot provide any relevant evidence for this.

For Würth, an improvement in the quality of life seems to be synonymous with the interests of a millionaires’ club, which, in times of climate change and net zero, supports a road project worth billions, but does not want the resulting traffic in front of its own villa entrance.

We take the sea taxi back to the harbor because it is getting cold in Kempratner Bay. The sun didn’t make it through the thick fog. Barbara Dillier does not want to disclose the names of her donors. And Thomas Schmidheiny also remained silent until the editorial deadline on the question of whether he supported her election campaign financially – as well as on all other questions asked to him about the tunnel. Instead, he sends the message through his media representative: “Thomas Schmidheiny has always worked for the positive development of the community of Rapperswil-Jona. He will continue to do so in the future.”