I took the trouble to find out how many of the 100 members of the Grand Council are of retirement age. I counted a total of 17 men and 2 women who are already of retirement age. That makes 19 % of the cantonal parliament.

Let's compare this with the resident population of the canton of Basel-Stadt: At the end of 2018, the canton had a population of 200,256. Of these, 38,844 were over 65 years old. What a surprise: that's 19.4 %!

My personal opinion is that people of AHV age are adequately represented in the Basel cantonal parliament - even if the proportion of retired women could certainly be increased!

Beatrice Messerli, a member of the Grand Council from the Green Alliance parliamentary group, has the honor of being the oldest woman in the Grand Council. I asked her where she sees the advantages of having a say in parliament as a retired teacher after 41 years in the service of schools.

Beatrice Messerli says that she now has more time for political work in the Council and probably less operational blindness for the school, even though she is still very close to her former colleagues.

She admires her young female council colleagues who are able to juggle a parliamentary mandate alongside their family and career. After all, working in the Grand Council is quite time-consuming and a real challenge.

In response to my comment that there are too few retired women in parliament, Beatrice Messerli says that she wishes women the courage they need to take on a role in politics after retirement.

And what does Beatrice Messerli say about the Seniors@Work startup: "The website makes a totally fresh impression! Super!