Believing to have “toured the function”, the Geneva State Councilor Antonio Hodgers will take his political retirement this fall. Invited in the morning of the RTS, the elected green draws the assessment of its twelve years in the Geneva government.
Antonio Hodgers announced his resignation on October 31, 2025, during the legislature. This choice was motivated by his feeling of having done what he could do, “especially for this legislature,” he explains in the morning of the RTS. “Faced with the observation of having made my time, I preferred to make the immediate decision” to leave, he adds.
>> Read also: Geneva State Councilor Antonio Hodgers resigns
Energy transition
Elected to the Grand Council Geneva in 1997, at 21, green entered the National Council in 2007, until 2013, where he was elected to the Geneva Council of State. He will have spent all twelve years in charge of the territory department within the cantonal executive.
At the time of the balance sheet, Antonio Hodgers retains two projects in particular from which he says he is proud. “First of all, the question of energy transition,” he said. “Geneva has acquired a certainly the most ambitious energy law in Switzerland, even one of the most ambitious in Europe, because we have put the obligation to renovate buildings for 60% of them, with financial incentives, but bonds too”.
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Antonio Hodgers recalls that the owners who do not respect this “citizen obligation” renovation can receive fines, or even end up in prison. And the effects are already felt. “Last year, for the first time since the industrial revolution, Geneva has dropped its CO2 emissions,” he rejoices. “That’s it, we took the turn. We are far from having reached carbon neutrality, but the peak is broken.”
Imagine the city of tomorrow
The other project aroused the pride of the State Councilor is the future Praille-Acacias-Vernets district (PAV). “It is great to think of the city of tomorrow, to imagine a more vertical city, it is true, but with many more spaces dedicated to the ground, meeting spaces, no parking on the surface, very little traffic,” said Antonio Hodgers.
Sometimes described as “concreteur”, green denies it, recalling that “public spaces are much more important in the new district than what they were in the past”. “There are 60,000 square meters of public green spaces that are created as part of the new districts,” he said. “The PAV, today is an industrial area. Tomorrow, there will be hectares of park”.
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Antonio Hodgers therefore defends his densification policy. Because densifying means “creating spaces, certainly of habitat-we all need accommodation-but also green spaces,” he said. “And it is for me a great pride to grow in dense urban districts, close to public transport, but quality districts, green districts, neighborhoods where there are local services,” he adds.
For the PAV project, just as for the energy transition, the real impact will only be seen in a few years, underlines Antonio Hodgers. “I like the idea that the real effects of my policy will be very concretely in about twenty years,” he concludes.
Interview by Pietro Bugnon
Web adaptation: Emilie Délétroz
