Status: 07.12.2022 1:31 p.m
The Swiss government has two new faces: the right-wing conservative Rösti and the social democrat Baume-Schneider. In the run-up to the election, the question was how much niceness both can score with.
Switzerland’s system of government is unique in Europe – and sometimes difficult to understand for outsiders: there are hardly any hard fights between the opposition and the government, because the country is traditionally ruled jointly by the four strongest parties. They make up the seven equal members of the Bundesrat, as the governing body is called in Bern.
And once elected to this body, they usually stay for a very long time – ten years on average, with some even holding office for almost 30 years.
That’s why this Wednesday is a special day – with possible long-term consequences for political Switzerland. After the announced resignations of Finance Minister Ueli Maurer and Environment Minister Simonetta Sommaruga, Parliament elected two new members to the Federal Council: Albert Rösti, one from the Swiss People’s Party SVP, and Elisabeth Baume-Schneider, a social democrat. An election that has kept the country in suspense for weeks.
The Swiss Federal Council – a kind of oversized coalition.
Image: AFP
Right-wing conservative to far left in one government
Government work in Switzerland requires a willingness to compromise. The seven members of the Bundesrat traditionally represent the four strongest parties and jointly steer the country’s fortunes – in a kind of oversized coalition.
They range from the Swiss People’s Party (SVP), which would roughly correspond to the AfD in Germany, to the Swiss Social Democratic Party (SP), which is to the left of the SPD, according to political scientist Claude Longchamp: “Together they form a government – and she has to be responsible as a whole for what she decided. You have to fit in.”
“Lovely and sociable” asked in the Federal Council
And so it is hardly surprising what a study on the profile of the Swiss Federal Council found out: Namely, that “the loved ones and the sociable ones” have the best chance of a seat in the government.
A straight forward for the moderator of the talk show of the Swiss television SRF, when he asked the president of the middle party about the character suitability of the two SVP candidates in the run-up to the election: “Who is nicer and more sociable – Mr. Rösti or Mr. Vogt?”
From the start, Bernese Albert Rösti was the favorite for the vacant SVP seat in the Federal Council. He is the former president of his party and actually has a reputation for being a nice right-wing politician.
Behind nice there is probably also tactics
But there are also tactics behind this, says political scientist Longchamp: “Of course, we Swiss also know that the Rösti is a good tactician. And I also think that Albert Rösti wasn’t always a nice guy. He is responsible for the campaign against mass immigration in Switzerland – quite a bit latently racist posters. That wasn’t his particularly nice work.”
Minus points for “kindergarten” tirades
The Left and the Greens, on whose votes Rösti was dependent in the election, don’t find the SVP politician’s close ties to the oil and car lobby particularly nice either. Political scientist Longchamp is convinced, however, that the other SVP candidate – Zurich law professor Hans-Ueli Vogt – hardly had a chance against Rösti. Because he had only retired from politics a year ago, describing parliament as a “kindergarten”. Ueli-Vogt will probably take it amiss “that he insulted Parliament so much,” said Longchamp.
Election victory for the “popular social democrat from the provinces”
So the main thing is nice? Longchamp sees an exception to the Swiss character rule for members of the government in the second Federal Council seat occupied by the social democrat Baume-Schneider. In the run-up, however, the long-time Basel finance director Eva Herzog was considered the favorite for the post.
“This is a woman who thinks strategically and who has a pretty precise, straight idea of what is important for the city of Basel and Switzerland. That’s not the nicer one,” Longchamp describes the politician Herzog.
Baume-Schneider said the “nicer one” was the ultimate election winner from the canton of Jura: An “outsider”, according to Longchamp, “a popular social democrat from the provinces”.
Sympathy points for the “honey cake horse”
“Frozen versus honey cake horse” – this is how the “Neue Zürcher Zeitung” described the election between the two Social Democrats, Herzog and Baume-Schneider. In just a few weeks, the latter was able to garner a lot of sympathy points both in parliament and in public.
Incidentally, with Baume-Schneider’s election, there are now more French and Italian speakers in the Swiss government than German-speaking Swiss, who make up more than 60 percent of the population.