Jositsch leaves SP: Independent in the Council of States | allfacts360
Daniel Jositsch leaves the SP after 27 years and wants to continue in the Council of States as an independent
Zurich, June 05, 2026
Services du Parlement / Wikimedia Commons / Attribution
Summary
After 27 years of membership, Zurich Council of States member Daniel Jositsch has left the SP. The criminal law professor announced that he wants to continue his mandate as an independent. Political scientists see this as an unusual but not hopeless step.
Zurich, June 05, 2026
Zurich Council of States member Daniel Jositsch has left the Social Democratic Party (SP) of Switzerland after 27 years of membership and wants to continue his mandate as an independent politician.
Jositsch announced his decision to the media on Thursday after reviewing his time in the party. "I have decided: I am leaving the SP," he said verbatim. He is leaving the party and its parliamentary group, explained the criminal law professor from the University of Zurich. He wants to continue his political work as an independent.
From School Board Member to Council of States Member
The path to the Council of States was a historic success for Jositsch in 2015: as the first SP politician in 30 years, he won a seat in the "Little Chamber" for the Zurich Social Democrats, breaking the bourgeois dominance in the canton. Before that, he had been a cantonal councillor, national councillor, and school board member in Stäfa. In his first campaign for the National Council, he drew attention with a twelve-point plan against youth violence – including prison sentences for 14-year-olds.
Jositsch repeatedly distinguished himself politically outside the party line. He spoke out against inheritance tax, against stricter banking regulation, and against high corporate taxes, while at the same time demanding more powers for the intelligence service. In 2016, he founded the "Reformplattform" (Reform Platform), which was intended to unite social-liberal forces within the SP and was welcomed by the party leadership at the time, led by Christian Levrat.
Break with the Party Line
At the latest since the leadership change in 2020, when two former Juso (Young Socialists) members, Mattea Meyer and Cédric Wermuth, took over the SP leadership, the rift deepened. Jositsch publicly opposed the revision of the sexual criminal law, which was largely supported by the SP in 2022. When SP Federal Councillor Simonetta Sommaruga resigned in 2022 and the party leadership decided to nominate only one woman, Jositsch sharply criticized this. The decision was "discriminatory" and had "nothing to do with equality," he said.
When Alain Berset resigned, Jositsch received only four out of 48 votes from the SP parliamentary group for a Federal Council candidacy. On election day, he refused to reject these wildcard votes and demonstratively remained seated instead of going to the podium to reject a potential election. Finally, he also relinquished the chairmanship of the SP parliamentary group in the Council of States.
Reasons for Resignation
According to Jositsch, the background to the separation also includes his party's stance on foreign policy. "What I have been observing for some time is confirmed: that a majority of the party thinks one-sidedly," he said, referring to a resolution of solidarity with Israel. He even likened the mechanism of government elections in Switzerland to "certain dictatorships." At the same time, he emphasizes that he agrees with the SP on 80 percent of substantive issues. According to statistical surveys, the SP parliamentary group in the Federal Assembly aligns with the party program 98 percent of the time.
The fact that the Zurich SP did not nominate Jositsch again for the Council of States made the break final. Now he is moving to the camp of the independents – a "very unusual" step for an incumbent Council of States member, according to political scientist Hans-Peter Schaub from the University of Bern. There are historical precedents: Thomas Minder entered the Council of States as an independent and remained so throughout his term, and Hans Hess from Obwalden was also elected as an independent and later joined the FDP.
What the Step Means for Parliamentary Work
For Schaub, the move is nevertheless not hopeless. "Most voters are not party members themselves. Under certain circumstances, one can also present oneself as a figure of identification for this more than 90 percent of the population," he says. However, an independent loses financial, personnel, and organizational support, access to networks, and the substantive resonance of a party during election campaigns.
According to Schaub, party membership is less decisive in everyday parliamentary life than group affiliation. An independent can belong to a parliamentary group, but must be accepted there. Parliamentarians without a group retain the right to speak and introduce motions, but according to statistics, their motions are less successful, and internal coordination is lacking. Without a group, Jositsch would also have to set priorities and would lose the flow of information to other policy areas.
Whether he succeeds in his leap to independence will be shown at the ballot box and in the council chamber. What is clear is that Jositsch is not leaving the SP as an unknown, but as a prominent foreign policy expert and one of the country's best-known criminal law scholars, who has left his political mark in Zurich over decades.
Interview: Silvan Zemp
Questions & Answers
Who is Daniel Jositsch?
Daniel Jositsch is a Zurich criminal law professor at the University of Zurich who served as a cantonal councillor, national councillor, and finally Council of States member for the SP. In 2015, Daniel Jositsch won a seat in the Council of States in the canton of Zurich.
Why did Jositsch leave the SP?
Jositsch cites, among other reasons, the SP's claim to nominate a single parent for the succession of Federal Councillor Simonetta Sommaruga, a foreign policy stance he considers one-sided, and the Zurich SP's failure to nominate him again for the Council of States.
What changes for him as an independent Council of States member?
As an independent, Jositsch loses the financial and organizational support of a party as well as access to its network. In parliamentary work, his influence, according to political scientist Hans-Peter Schaub, depends primarily on whether he finds acceptance in a parliamentary group; parliamentarians without a group retain the right to speak and introduce motions but are statistically less successful.
