The parliament elected social democrat Élisabeth Baume-Schneider and nationalist-conservative Albert Rösti to the government in a vote on Wednesday after the resignation of two members of the seven-headed Swiss Federal Council.
Baume-Schneider will replace the social-democrat Federal Councillor Simonetta Sommaruga, who has served in the Swiss government since 2010, first as the head of the Federal Department of Justice and Police, and since 2019 as the head of the Federal Department of Environment, Transport, Energy and Communications.
Baume-Schneider is a former member of the regional government of the canton of Jura, and has been a member of the Council of States, the parliamentary chamber representing the interests of the cantons, since 2019.
Rösti will replace Ueli Maurer, a fellow former president of the Swiss People’s Party who has been serving as a Federal Councillor since 2009. Since 2016 Maurer has headed the Department of Finance. Rösti is a former president of the far-right Swiss People’s Party, a member of the National Council since 2011, and president of Swiss Oil, the lobby organisation of Swiss fossil fuel traders.
While Baume-Schneider won the election in a tight race against fellow social-democrat Eva Herzog in the third round of voting, Rösti won his election in the first round with a clear majority against his competitor Hans-Ueli Vogt.
In contrast to most other European governments, the Swiss government works under the principle of “Concordance democracy”, which involves all large parties from across the political spectrum in its government.
In a historically unusual development, the Federal Council now has more members from the “Latin” regions of Switzerland than from the German-speaking part of Switzerland, with three French-speaking Federal Councillors, one Italian-speaking Federal Councillor and three members from the German-speaking area.
The government will meet to discuss a reshuffling of governmental departments on Thursday.
(Janos Allenbach-Ammann | EURACTIV.com)
Source: euractiv.com
