Cédric Wermuth

Wermuth and his family live in a housing co-op, share a car with other families, and buy vegetables directly from the source to lower their footprint.[22][2] He regards climate change as a class issue and wants to increase non-profit housing construction and expand solar energy both to save the environment and to improve quality of life for impoverished families.[23][28] He thinks Switzerland should participate in the Green New Deal and that private car and plane travel should be decreased across the board.[28][22][30] He finds the "moral thinking" that all people are responsible for global warming "fundamentally wrong" because corporations did and continue to do the most damage.[9]

For the World Wide Fund for Nature's 2012 Earth Hour, he bet the people of Switzerland that if he could get 200 people to ride their bikes more often, he would clean their bikes.[31] In the end, he cleaned only a few, but considers it a success nonetheless.[31]

Wermuth thinks that, like a lot of other countries, Switzerland could have dealt with the emergence of COVID-19 more effectively.[32] While he does not personally like COVID passports, he believes everyone must do their part to quash the virus and thus voted in favor of the COVID-19 Act.[33][34] He does think, however, that vaccines are the most effective method to end the pandemic and that this should be the main focus.[34][35]

In 2008, he smoked a joint while discussing cannabis legalization during a National Council meeting to demonstrate his support of decriminalizing it.[36][9][4]

Capitalism and corporate greed are among Wermuth's main foci.[37] He believes capitalism is unjust and treated like a religion by many people, particularly the wealthy.[37][36] He was a staunch supporter of the 99% Initiative, which aimed to increase wealth redistribution by increasing taxes on capital gain.[38][33][39][40] He does not believe that companies, corporations, and the wealthy are being taxed enough, and that this is unconstitutional because the Constitution calls for "taxation based on economic performance."[41][39] He believes in salary caps—the highest salary should be no more than 12x the lowest salary in the company across all levels—and a minimum wage, which currently does not exist in Switzerland.[6][36] He thinks that the rich protest against these equalizing values by threatening to create an economic crisis, and that corporations are the reason governments cannot find solutions.[26][39] He does not consider wealth a crime but does think the consequential perpetuation of the class struggle and wealth hoarding is criminal.[39]

He prescribes two responsibilities to corporations: insurance that their employees' human rights are not being exploited, and responsibility-taking when a mistake is made.[42]

He considers that jobs traditionally viewed as women's work, such as nursing and childcare, are underpaid and that politicians should not be making significantly more than people in these occupations.[27][9][26]

Wermuth believes in marriage equality, more equalized parenting and considers himself a feminist.[43][33][44] He has recommended the National Council grant 38 weeks—to be shared between both parents—of leave following the birth of their child.[32][45] He wants external childcare to be free and a guaranteed spot in childcare for all Swiss children.[27][46][26] A better work/life balance for National Council members and other politicians is also something he has supported.[47][26]

Until gender equality is less of an issue in society, Wermuth believes that hiring quotas should be required to stop "mediocre men" hiring even more "mediocre men", while more qualified women have to bend over backwards to even have their résumé considered.[9][27] Gender discrimination is a social issue and he is very clear that men should be interested and involved in supporting feminism and decreasing inequality.[44][27] He also believes that abortion is the woman's choice and that women's rights are human rights.[9][26] He attends Women's Marches with his wife and daughters.[9] The only women's rights issue he grapples with is whether to legalize prostitution because he can see both good and bad in each decision.[9]

Wermuth is in favor of Switzerland joining the European Union (EU) but requires several things to happen before it can be realized.[30] Switzerland must prove itself cooperative and measures must be taken to guarantee public services and wage protection.[48][22] These necessities should apply equally to Swiss citizens and to everyone already in the EU.[30] Children should be given a Swiss passport at birth if they were born in Switzerland, regardless of their parents' nationality,[26] and Swiss people should know at least one national language (Swiss, German, or French) rather than only English.[49] He believes that both European integration and social progress are possible.[8]

He is also in favor of supporting countries considered to be hot topics; he previously served as co-president of the Switzerland-Kosovo and Swiss-Syriac Parliamentary groups.[3] He has given Kosovo his full support several times[50][51] and has assumed a political godfatherhood for the Belarusian Viktoryia Mirontsava, who is imprisoned in Belarus.[52] He gets very emotional about discussions of migrants due to his family's history of refugeeism[9] and calls all refugee crises "the result of blatant inequality and exploitation."[26]

Wermuth supports the idea of Switzerland as a welfare state[22] and that social services such as social security for the self-employed; pensions; lower healthcare premiums; dismissal protection for those over 50; and free high-performance internet and mobile communication should be available to all residents.[22][26][32][7]

When asked about his opinion on the separation of church and state, he asks why, if there is a God, so many people go hungry, and how, if God is not omnipotent, his presence in court would be helpful.[37]

Wermuth has also worked with Jewish organizations to get their perspectives on anti-Semitism in Switzerland and to learn more about Judaism.[49] His conclusion was that Switzerland is not doing enough to abnormalize anti-Semitism or using anti-Semitism to aim bigotry at Muslims.[15]