Candidate for demolition

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A candidate for explosives (Swiss) or a candidate for combat is the creation of an opposing candidate in an election in which otherwise only one person would stand if this person has a realistic chance of actually being elected.

In Switzerland

In the Swiss political system, a candidacy for a detonation is a candidacy that goes against the concordance-democratic agreements between parties. This can happen, for example, when a party tries to win a seat to which it is not entitled according to the tacit agreement on the allocation of seats (so-called " magic formula "), but also when other parties put up an opponent from the same party in addition to the official candidate.

Occasionally, the candidacy for explosives is used as a synonym for "wild candidacy". This term describes candidacies that take place without the support of your own party.

Demolition candidates are possible in major elections where individuals stand for election. In the case of proportional representation , however, only candidacies on party lists are possible.

At the national level

In the elections to the Federal Council , a candidacy for demolition is a political maneuver in which other parties elect a colleague from the same camp in his place to prevent the election of a politician. In this way the right of a party to participate in the concordance democratic government remains unaffected.

There have been several examples of this in the history of the Swiss Federal Council elections . In 1983, for example, the explosive candidate Otto Stich was elected instead of the official SP candidate Lilian Uchtenhagen . Ten years later, the election of the SP's official candidate, Christiane Brunner , was "blown up" by the Neuchâtel National Council and State Councilor Francis Matthey , who refused his election, whereupon Ruth Dreifuss was elected.

Christoph Blocher was elected as a demolition candidate in the Federal Council elections in 2003 instead of Ruth Metzler .

Most recently, such a demolition candidate was used in the 2007 Federal Council elections after the Graubünden government councilor Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf was elected with a narrow majority in the second round of elections at the suggestion of left-wing parties, instead of the incumbent Christoph Blocher .

At the cantonal level

The cantonal governments are elected by the people, and in most cantons by majority vote. That is why it happens that politicians who are not nominated by their own party run “on their own”. Since personalities rather than parties are in the foreground in these elections, such candidacies also have real chances.

In Germany

In Germany, the media speak of a candidate for a fight or a vote in a fight if, contrary to customary practice, several candidates run for election to party positions. In spite of internal party democracy , it is customary, particularly in the case of party chairman elections, for the party’s leadership bodies to agree on a candidate in advance.

In small parties in particular, there is often a battle vote before federal elections for promising list places, i.e. for places on the state lists of the parties for state or federal elections. Since, for example, politicians from the FDP and the Greens hardly have a real chance of being directly elected in a constituency , these lists are the only way in small parties to win a Landtag or Bundestag mandate.

Often there are fighting candidates in promising Bundestag constituencies or in constituencies where a political generation change takes place.

Examples

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Joachim Frite-Vannahme: Bernhard Vogel resigns. In: The time . November 18, 1988. Retrieved May 25, 2012 .
  2. ↑ Anja Wunsch: Scharping loses party leadership. In: Rheinische Post . November 16, 2004, accessed May 25, 2012 .
  3. ^ SPIEGEL Online: Battle vote - Nahles becomes SPD general secretary