Personal contact is more important to me than social media

Beat Villiger is currently the head of public safety in the canton and on Sunday 7 October he is hoping to be re-elected to the cantonal government for a fourth time.

The CVP-party-member is in no way tired of political office; he feels he wants to carry on with projects he is currently involved with and enjoys the support of his team, too.

Villiger was actually born in Holdenstock in the Freiamt, an area of south-east Argovia, to a farming family where he was one of eleven children. He went on to attend primary school in Alikon and later did an apprenticeship in administration at the civic offices in Sins, subsequently becoming secretary to the municipality. He then moved to Baar where, for eleven years, he was also secretary to the municipality and qualified as a notary. He then he set up business as a fiduciary before being elected to the cantonal government for the first time in 2006.

It is not surprising he maintains much contact with locals in his home area, not least his brother, Stefan (in blue in the photograph) who has run the Horben Alpenwirtschaft inn for the past 18 years. It is up there the pair talk about family matters and go on cycling trips. “It is all just so uncomplicated up there,” said the politician. “And sometimes you might see Doris Leuthard (federal councillor responsible for the Federal Department of the Environment, Transport, Energy and Communications) up there. Everyone is so friendly and, what is more, you have this lovely view over Zug.”

Returning to his political responsibilities in Zug, Villiger said cooperation in all his departments was going very well, with much evidence of trust. “Politics has really become my life,” he said, “It dominates my day from morning till night, yet I still enjoy it all.”

When it actually comes to talking about Villiger’s responsibilities in office, he remains very modest. He is the sort of politician who weighs his words very carefully before saying anything, but did say he was very proud of the competent way his department is run. In recent years he has been instrumental in introducing new laws, such as those relating to reducing hooliganism and littering, not to mention the increased use of surveillance cameras. With statistics for 2017 revealing the lowest ever rates of crime and fewest road traffic accidents in the canton, he can rightly be satisfied with the level of public safety enjoyed by the citizens of Zug. “Though naturally, cyber-attacks and terrorism present new challenges to us; and it is up to us in politics to act in a pro-active way in this area; we cannot just react,” he insisted. Indeed, it is in this area that Villiger would like to see closer cooperation with other cantons, particularly in policing.

Of late he has been looking at amendments to the federal laws relating not only to the Protection of the Population and Civil Protection but also Fire Protection, not the sort of topics which make headline news, but ones which have to be seen to nevertheless. “It takes time before a new law can be enacted,” he said.

Then, of course, there is the matter of the canton’s finances, though with the implementation of the “Finanzen 2019” policy, Villiger thinks things are on the right tracks. As reported recently, the cantonal government has backed a proposal for a temporary increase in the tax threshold in 2020, though as far as cutbacks are concerned, he thinks these have gone far enough.

As to the elections themselves, Villiger is taking a pragmatic view. “They always present a few surprises and I could well see a second vote having to take place.”

When asked why his own website had not been updated since 2014, he said he would be updating it but it was not so important to him. Neither does he do social media. “I always prefer personal contact with people,” he said. “This is more important to me and I feel you can get further with it. You must make sure, too, that digitisation does not increase the gap between administration and citizen. After all, it is the latter who should be at the centre of things.

What might be less well known about the politician is that he is not averse to joining in singing folksongs at family gatherings and he is the honorary president of the Abtwil brass band, not to mention a member of the Sins cycling club.