"In 1990 we started and founded the first list for the district council", foundation member rose stark remembers. The mayoress of pretzfeld tells that some burghers were disappointed at that time that no one cared about environmental issues at the district level. It was not clear, for example, whether dangers were emanating from the landfill site in gosberg, because it was not sealed off. "We were mainly active environmentalists and nature conservationists who were not in any party, but wanted to bring their issues into county politics", the members wanted to raise awareness of the environment and tackle problems." since such topics are tackled in administrations, the WLF wanted to be "supportive there". Foundation member rose sees the strength of the list in this: "our concern was to make proposals that could actually be implemented by the administration. We have tried to implement sensible projects together."
From 1990 to 1996, georg meister and heinz marquart headed the list, from 1996 to 2002 rose stark and heinz marquardt. From 2002, peter morys and rose stark were at the helm of WLF, from 2014 rose stark and klaus schwab. The latter had to step down for health reasons and was succeeded in 2018 by heinrich kattenbeck, who had been on the WLF’s list of candidates since 2002.
Resentment among farmers
Georg meister was a farmer from mittelehrenbach. "With the farmers there was rough displeasure because of the land consolidation", reports rose strongly. Farmers were dissatisfied with land distribution. There were many fills in the quarries and biotopes disappeared. "They were filled up and flats were sealed", tells heinrich kattenbeck. In addition, the members of the WLF wondered whether every road really had to be extended and widened. The topics of the WLF also included the expansion of rail transport and the creation of a future-oriented mobility supply in the countryside, the closing of the gap for a nature-contracted cycle path network, the preservation of the francophone landscape or the creation of a biosphere reserve francophone switzerland.
"In the meantime, a lot has changed in the population", says heinrich kattenbeck. The age structure of the list is also high, he says, and there are too few young people who want to work continuously. Thus one had decided to draw lots for the list to the local election in the next year. Heinrich kattenbeck wants to run for the green party in the future. "It’s already clear that we are not competitors but friends. This has allowed us to focus on local political issues and the environment.", rose declares strongly. A lot has changed in the district council and environmental issues have been addressed. "I think we can do that now", says rose stark and heinrich kattenbeck adds: "the time is ripe, because the issues are now being carried by the general population. Now is good."