Valérie Dittli seeks re-election to the Vaud government against her party

Valérie Dittli is not leaving the Vaud cantonal government. In an interview with 'Le Matin Dimanche' the Centre party minister announced that she will stand again next February, despite the cases involving her and the opposition of her own party. She says she is running to win.

Dittli is putting herself at the party's disposal and expects to win it over on 2 September, when the Vaud section gathers its delegates. She says the Centre is her political family and that she hopes to fight the campaign alongside it. She does not, however, rule out running as an independent if her party declines to back her: were the party to decide to go on without her, she says, everything remains possible.

The announcement puts the Centre in an awkward position. Its executive committee had recommended she stand down. The party, which carries limited weight in the canton, is seeking alliances ahead of the 2027 cantonal elections, but the parties consulted, both in the centre and on the right, refuse any deal that includes Dittli as a candidate.

A surprise election, then the cases

Originally from Zug, Dittli was elected to the Vaud executive in April 2022, aged twenty-nine and without real political experience. Her election came as a surprise, thanks to an alliance between the Centre, the Radical-Liberals and the Swiss People's Party.

The favourable phase did not last. A number of cases involving her later emerged: tax matters, management problems, confidential arrangements and a breakdown of trust with her colleagues in government. Today the minister is isolated within the executive, attacked from several sides and under judicial scrutiny.

Dittli admits she made mistakes, especially at the start, and says she takes responsibility for them. She maintains, however, that she did her job, which is to govern, without letting the administration act in her place, and says she has a concrete record to defend.

For the coming campaign she sets out two themes: defending the purchasing power of the middle class and of small and medium-sized businesses, and work on agriculture and food, adapting farming instruments to drought and climate change. She points to programmes already under way in that area.