Federal Council election 2003

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The 2003 Federal Council elections took place on December 10, 2003 in Switzerland . Both chambers of the newly elected parliament , the Federal Assembly , elected in this complete re-election , the Swiss government, the Federal Council , for the 2004 to 2007 term of office lasting. The seats were ordered individually in the order of the age of office of the seat holder.

Federal Councilor Kaspar Villiger (FDP) no longer ran for another term. Hans-Rudolf Merz (FDP) was elected in his place . Because of its electoral strength, the SVP demanded a second seat in the Federal Council, in the person of Christoph Blocher , at the expense of the CVP. For the first time since 1872 a member of the Federal Council, namely Ruth Metzler-Arnold (CVP), was not re-elected. Instead, Christoph Blocher was elected. All other candidates were re-elected without any problems.

Strategies of the factions

  • SVP: The evening after the parliamentary elections , the SVP caused a surprise. As the strongest party, it has a right to a second seat in the Federal Council at the expense of the CVP in the sense of a concordance government. Your candidate is Christoph Blocher. In the event of a non-election, she threatened to join the opposition. The SVP ran against the first candidate for the CVP seat. She made no recommendation for the remaining CVP seat. She granted the FDP her right to the second seat, but made no recommendation here either.
  • CVP: The CVP parliamentary group insisted that previous federal councilors who had done their job well should be re-elected. She did not withdraw any candidacy and did not want her federal councilors to compete against each other. She did not want to attack the vacant FDP seat. She expressed no preference between the two FDP candidates.
  • SP: The candidate Christoph Blocher was not eligible for the SP parliamentary group. In addition, she did not want to be blackmailed or dictated by the SVP. She recommended the two CVP federal councilors for re-election. She also left open which FDP candidate should be supported.
  • FDP: The FDP-LPS parliamentary group recognized the SVP's claim to a second seat and supported Christoph Blocher. She did not express any preferences for the remaining CVP seat. For the seat that became vacant, she put up two candidacies: Christine Beerli and Hans-Rudolf Merz .
  • Greens: The green parliamentary group rejected Christoph Blocher's election. She called for adequate women's representation and therefore supported Ruth Metzler and Christine Beerli and, in the event that the SVP withdraws from the state government, a candidate of her own , party president Ruth Genner .

1st choice (seat of Moritz Leuenberger)

Moritz Leuenberger

All parties recommended Federal Councilor Moritz Leuenberger , member of the SP and Head of the Federal Department for the Environment, Transport, Energy and Communications (DETEC), for re-election.

  1st ballot
ballot papers distributed 246
ballot papers received 246
empty / invalid 11/1
valid total 234
absolute more 118
Moritz Leuenberger 211
various 23

2nd choice (seat of Pascal Couchepin)

Pascal Couchepin

Federal Councilor Pascal Couchepin ( FDP ), Head of the Federal Department of Home Affairs (FDHA), stood for re-election. His choice was safe.

  1st ballot
ballot papers distributed 246
ballot papers received 246
empty / invalid 13/3
valid total 230
absolute more 116
Pascal Couchepin 178
Fulvio Pelli 17th
Fernand Cuche 10
various 25th

3rd choice (seat of Ruth Metzler)

Ruth Metzler-Arnold
Christoph Blocher

Ruth Metzler ( CVP ), head of the Federal Department of Justice and Police (FDJP), had to tremble about her re-election. The CVP did not respond to the SVP's request and did not withdraw any of its candidacies. The SVP therefore attacked the first seat available for election. It announced that this attack was not directed against Ruth Metzler, but against the second seat of the CVP. Parliament is free to vote for Ruth Metzler in the fourth election.

Christoph Blocher was elected in the 3rd ballot.

  1st ballot 2nd ballot 3rd ballot
ballot papers distributed 246 246 246
ballot papers received 246 246 246
empty / invalid 4/2 2/3 5/4
valid total 240 241 237
absolute more 121 121 119
Christoph Blocher 116 119 121
Ruth Metzler 116 117 116
various 8th 5 -

4th choice (seat of Joseph Deiss)

Joseph Deiss

The CVP did not want its Federal Councilors to compete against each other and recommended Joseph Deiss , Head of the Federal Department of Economic Affairs , for re-election.

  1st ballot
ballot papers distributed 245
ballot papers received 245
empty / invalid 4/0
valid total 241
absolute more 121
Joseph Deiss 138
Ruth Metzler 96
various 7th

After this election, Ruth Metzler announced that she was no longer available for further ballots. Thus her non-re-election was definitive.

5th choice (seat of Samuel Schmid)

Samuel Schmid

Next up was Federal Councilor Samuel Schmid ( SVP ), Head of the Federal Department of Defense, Civil Protection and Sport (DDPS) for re-election. This was undisputed.

  1st ballot
ballot papers distributed 244
ballot papers received 244
empty / invalid 39/1
valid total 204
absolute more 103
Samuel Schmid 167
Ruth Genner 13
various 24

6th election (seat of Micheline Calmy-Rey)

Micheline Calmy-Rey

Federal Councilor Micheline Calmy-Rey ( SP ), head of the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs (FDFA), stood for re-election. Her choice was certain too.

  1st ballot
ballot papers distributed 244
ballot papers received 244
empty / invalid 17/1
valid total 226
absolute more 114
Micheline Calmy-Rey 206
various 20th

7th election (replacement)

Hans-Rudolf Merz

A replacement election was necessary for the resigning Kaspar Villiger. The FDP's claim was not denied. The FDP put up two candidates: Christine Beerli and Hans-Rudolf Merz . The Swiss Green Party recommended Christine Beerli for election. The other groups left the choice between the two candidates open.

  1st ballot 2nd ballot
ballot papers distributed 246 244
ballot papers received 246 244
empty / invalid 5/0 5/0
valid total 241 239
absolute more 121 120
Hans-Rudolf Merz 115 127
Christine Beerli 83 96
Franz Steinegger 16 -
Fulvio Pelli 11 -
various 16 16

More choices

Federal Chancellor Annemarie Huber-Hotz was re-elected with 173 votes in the first ballot.

Joseph Deiss was elected Federal President for 2004 with 174 votes and Samuel Schmid was elected Vice President with 143 votes.

consequences

With the new party-political composition, the magic formula that had been in force since 1959 was changed. Until 2008, the SVP, FDP and SP had two seats in the Federal Council, while the CVP only had one. Thus the FDP and SVP had a majority in the Federal Council, but they did not have it in parliament. There was only one woman in the Federal Council, which led to protests. The new Federal Council had a high average age of 59 years.

Web links

See also