Federal Council election 2009

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Federal Council photo before the replacement election
Elected Federal Councilor Didier Burkhalter in his speech on the acceptance of the election

At the Swiss Federal Council election in 2009 was on 16th September 2009 in a by-election Didier Burkhalter ( FDP ) as the successor to the retiring Pascal Couchepin (FDP) by the United Federal Assembly in the Swiss Federal Council selected.

Resignation Couchepin

The resigned Pascal Couchepin

Pascal Couchepin was elected to the Federal Council on March 11, 1998 as the successor to Jean-Pascal Delamuraz (FDP). At the beginning of his term of office he was head of the Department of Economic Affairs, last and until his resignation he was in the Federal Council as Minister of the Interior of Switzerland. Couchepin served as Federal President twice, in 2003 and 2008 . During his tenure as Federal Councilor, Couchepin's main concern was to raise the retirement age to 67. In the last few months of his tenure, Couchepin was under pressure because of the increases in health insurance premiums. The medical association protested against his health policy and demanded his resignation. Couchepin promised to his party before the 2007 National Council elections that he would resign during the 2007-2011 legislature.

On June 12, 2009, Chiara Simoneschi-Cortesi , President of the National Council, read out Couchepin's letter of resignation before the start of the National Council meeting , in which he wrote that he would resign on October 31, 2009. Couchepin did not give reasons for his resignation. He made the decision to resign a long time ago, and he also announced that he would resign during the legislature. The fall of the legislature would be halfway through, so this would be the right time. His party would have enough time to find a candidate for the successor election.

Positions of the parties

As a concordance government, the Federal Assembly tries to elect all political currents to the Bundesrat. For a long time, the so-called magic formula 2: 2: 2: 1 applied, in which the major parties SP, CVP and FDP had two seats in the Federal Council, while the SVP only had one seat in the government. This magic formula is based on the votes in the Federal Assembly. In the 2003 Federal Council elections, however, the SVP National Councilor Christoph Blocher was elected in place of the CVP Federal Councilor Ruth Metzler-Arnold after the SVP became the party with the largest number of voters. The FDP wanted to defend “its” seat and invoked its third-largest share of the vote (with the Liberal Party, after SVP and SP, but before CVP). The CVP wanted to get back the seat it had lost in 2003 to the SVP and appealed to the second largest parliamentary group (together with EPP / glp , after the SVP but before the SP and FDP).

The SVP decided not to support its own candidate. However, this only on the condition that the FDP does not take the candidate Lüscher out of the running prematurely. The Green Party was also considering running, but decided against running in September 2009. The SP and the BDP do not want to put forward their own candidates.

Candidates

According to the constitution, all regions and language regions should be adequately represented in the Federal Council. Since Pascal Couchepin, one of two representatives of French-speaking Switzerland, resigned, it was undisputed that the seat should be given to a person from French or Italian-speaking Switzerland.

Internal party eliminations of the FDP

The following were nominated by their cantonal parties for internal party eliminations: National Councilor Martine Brunschwig Graf and National Councilor Christian Lüscher , both from the Canton of Geneva, Councilor of States Didier Burkhalter , Canton of Neuchâtel and Government Councilor Pascal Broulis , Canton of Vaud. Party president Fulvio Pelli , Canton Ticino, was not officially nominated by his cantonal party, but was proposed as a candidate for the parliamentary group. The FDP-Liberal parliamentary group of the Federal Assembly nominated Didier Burkhalter and Christian Lüscher on August 28th.

Internal party eliminations of the CVP

National Councilor Dominique de Buman and Councilor of States Urs Schwaller from the canton of Friborg and the Ticino State Councilor Luigi Pedrazzini were proposed to the CVP . The CVP / EPP / glp parliamentary group decided on 8 September for Urs Schwaller as the only official candidate.

Official candidates

The vote

Parliament applauds the elected Federal Council
Didier Burkhalter declares acceptance of the election
Candidates 1st ballot 2nd ballot 3rd ballot 4th ballot
Didier Burkhalter Didier Burkhalter 58 72 80 129
Christian Lüscher Christian Lüscher 73 72 63 4 (withdrawn)
Urs Schwaller Urs Schwaller 79 89 95 106
Dick Marty Dick Marty 34 12 (withdrawn) 5 (withdrawn) 0
Other 1 0 0 0
Ballot papers received 245 245 243 245
Invalid ballot paper 0 0 0 1
Blank ballot paper 0 0 0 5
Valid ballot papers 245 245 243 239
Absolute more 123 123 122 120

Web links

Commons : Federal Council election 2009  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ head held high on his way. nzz.ch, June 12, 2009, accessed on September 18, 2009 .
  2. ↑ Couchepin resigns. nzz.ch, June 12, 2009, accessed on September 18, 2009 .
  3. ↑ Resignation with a swollen chest. nzz.ch, June 13, 2009, accessed on September 18, 2009 .
  4. ↑ a b c NZZ of August 28, 2009: The FDP enters the race with Burkhalter and Lüscher
  5. ↑ a b Tages-Anzeiger from July 24, 2009
  6. ^ AZ of July 9, 2009
  7. ↑ Tages-Anzeiger of August 7, 2009
  8. ↑ Everything speaks for a duel between Pelli and Schwaller in the Tages-Anzeiger.
  9. ↑ BZ of August 24, 2009: Schwaller and de Buman now officially
  10. ↑ CVP starts with Schwaller - candidate carousel complete. Berner Zeitung , accessed on September 15, 2009 .
  11. ↑ a b c d Burkhalter is the new Federal Councilor - "I swear before God". Der Bund , September 16, 2009, accessed on September 16, 2009 .
  12. ↑ Since the death of the Council of States Ernst Leuenberger, the Federal Assembly has only 245 members.