Swiss politician – and convicted criminal – Pierre Maudet wins re-election

“This is a triumph for him,” declares Nenad Stojanovic, a political scientist at the University of Geneva. Maudet’s re-election follows a lengthy period in the wilderness: thrown out of his party, stripped of his department at the Geneva Council of State, found guilty of accepting illegal favours and roundly condemned by the Swiss media.

The scandal can be traced back to a 2015 trip to Abu Dhabi paid for by the Emirati crown prince. The Geneva criminal appeal and review court (Chambre pénale d’appel et de révision) ruled on 26 May 2023 that Maudet must repay the cost of this trip, put at more than 50,000 Swiss francs, to the canton of Geneva. The newly re-elected state councillor was also given a suspended 120,000 Swiss franc fine. The court declared that Maudet had accepted an undue favour, knowingly exposing himself to the risk of influence over the performance of his duties as a state councillor.

The Maudet affair was first revealed by the “Tribune de Genève” newspaper in May 2018 and turned into a national scandal – particularly coming shortly after the 2017 Federal Council elections, in which he came close to winning a seat. “It is a serious political matter, and in his shoes 99 percent of elected representatives would have stepped down,” says Stojanovic.

Shock, outrage and admiration

Maudet’s re-election – along with the election to the Grand Council of 11 deputies from the Liberty and Social Justice movement that he established – provoked a mixture of shock, outrage and admiration. “It’s staggering that he has been voted back in,” says Lukas Golder, a political analyst and media expert who jointly heads up the gfs.bern research institute. There has been no major outcry about Maudet’s return from national elected representatives in Berne; their line has very much been that voters have the right to elect the candidate of their choice.

For his part, Pierre Maudet did step down from the Geneva government, but only as a step towards rehabilitating himself. Between the two rounds of voting in the Geneva elections, Green party State Councillor Antonio Hodgers expressed indignation, asking: “When the people decide to vote into office someone who has been convicted of corruption, who has lied to the authorities... what value does that place on ethics in politics?” But in a democracy, it is the people who decide. “Voters wanted to focus on the good and forget about the bad,” concludes Sciarini.

Above all, people vote for human beings

Golder points out that “the media are very quick to make a moral judgment, whereas voters are more likely to look at someone as a human being, with a hope for redemption”. During his most recent campaign, Maudet adopted language and attitudes that underscore people’s fascination with him. “I met him once,” says Stojanovic, who found him to be empathetic and humble. He also points out that Maudet has genuine fans: “a rarity in Swiss politics”. It should be remembered, however, that Maudet showed a much harsher side in his dealings with civil servants. Another fly in the ointment is that, in the words of the appeal court, Maudet “has never accepted, not even in part, the criminal nature of his actions, pleading legal uncertainty in order to escape sanction”.

Going forward, Pierre Maudet “has no choice but to work effectively with his colleagues on the Council of State. It could be that five years from now he will have regained all his legitimacy,” argues Golder.