Choice of compliments

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The compliment choice was a standard in the second half of the 19th century election procedures in Switzerland . Acting federal councilors faced the judgment of the voters of their canton or constituency after the end of the legislative period by running for national councilors . With a successful election to the National Council, they demonstrated that they continued to enjoy the trust of the people. This confirmation of legitimation as a member of the government was a prerequisite for the re-election of a Federal Council by the Federal Assembly . Immediately after the successful election to the Federal Council, the vacant National Council seats had to be filled in replacement elections . From the 1880s, the choice of compliments was increasingly criticized because of its incompatibility with the separation of powers and gradually fell out of use. It was last used in 1896.

Effects

Compliment elections were first held on the occasion of the National Council elections in 1851 . In October 1854 Ulrich Ochsenbein came last in the constituency of Bern-Seeland , whereupon the Federal Assembly did not re-elect him as Federal Council and instead preferred his competitor Jakob Stämpfli . In the same national council elections , Stefano Franscini failed in the constituency of Ticino-North . Since no decision had yet been made in the first and second ballots in the canton of Schaffhausen , he ran there instead and was also elected, whereby the Federal Assembly considered his legitimacy by the people to be confirmed. Wilhelm Matthias Naeff , who was a member of the Federal Council from 1848 to 1875, also no longer received popular approval in the National Council elections in the constituency of St. Gallen-Nordost in 1866 , as he had lived in Bern for almost two decades and therefore had little contact with the grassroots. In 1869 and 1872 he renounced a candidacy for the National Council. Nevertheless, the Federal Assembly always confirmed it, even if only barely.

In 1866 the radical liberals in the canton of Geneva lost all seats to the moderate liberals. This also jeopardized the re-election of Jean-Jacques Challet-Venel as Federal Councilor. Only because the liberal Philippe Camperio expressly rejected an election to the Federal Council, Challet-Venel remained in office. Although he succeeded in an appealing compliment election in the National Council elections in 1872 , the Federal Assembly still did not re-elect him. The reasons were his opposition to the total revision of the Federal Constitution and his candidacy on an "anti-revisionist list". In contrast to Challet-Venel, Paul Cérésole was a supporter of the total overhaul, which, however, earned him little sympathy in the canton of Vaud . In order to secure his re-election as Federal Councilor, he did not stand for the compliment election in his home canton in 1872, but with success in the constituency of Bern-Oberland .

Josef Martin Knüsel was defeated in the National Council elections in 1875 in the Lucerne-East constituency , whereupon he announced his resignation as Federal Councilor. Before the National Council elections in 1878 , Federal Councilor Numa Droz was not even put up as a candidate due to internal party differences in the canton of Neuchâtel . In the rest of Switzerland, however, it was undisputed, which is why the Federal Assembly confirmed it despite the lack of compliments. In the same year, Joachim Heer expressly refrained from voting for compliments in the canton of Glarus , as he announced his early resignation from the Federal Council for health reasons.

Criticism of principle

The renowned constitutional lawyer Simon Kaiser , a member of the National Council from the Canton of Solothurn , was the first to fundamentally criticize the choice of compliments. It was also he who coined the term and deliberately evoked a negative connotation (others sometimes used the term “vote of confidence”). In his view, "the people's right to vote is being degraded to a satisfaction of ambition, perhaps politeness, to a compliment". One expected democracy "to become an aristocracy, where compliments and lies are used". With a motion submitted on December 8, 1881 , Kaiser demanded the amendment of the Electoral and Voting Act of 1872, since the election of a Federal Council to the National Council - even if it was only temporary - contradicted the Federal Constitution and the principle of the separation of powers .

The Federal Council's message of October 30, 1883 on the revision of the federal electoral and voting law did not respond to Kaiser's suggestion and instead suggested that the election of compliments be explicitly stipulated. In addition, the Federal Council proposed a strict incompatibility regulation for federal civil servants. The different procedures were justified by the fact that federal councilors only belonged to the National Council for around ten days, while parliamentary confirmatory elections for federal officials only took place five months after the National Council elections. In addition, the people's freedom of choice should not be restricted. When the National Council was discussing the law in March 1885, Kaiser again applied for federal councilors (and also Federal Chancellors ) to be excluded from being eligible for election to the National Council. His motion was accepted, but the law as a whole was later rejected.

Rapid disappearance

Adolf Deucher , represented in the Federal Council from 1883 to 1912, did not want to stand for a compliment election in the canton of Thurgau in 1884 . Since all the other Federal Councilors ran again for the National Council, he could not leave as the youngest in office. Before the National Council elections in 1887 , he announced in a press release that he would now expressly waive a National Council candidacy. This announcement did not come as a surprise, because his aversion to the choice of compliments had been known for a long time. His decision met with broad approval in the press. In 1890 two more federal councilors, Walter Hauser and Karl Schenk , followed the example of their counterpart. In 1893 they were also joined by Josef Zemp , which means that four Federal Councilors have already waived the election of compliments. In the elections to the National Council in 1896 , only Adrien Lachenal ran for National Council in the canton of Geneva. In 1899 there were no more elections for compliments, and this once important voting principle was quickly forgotten.

In connection with Christoph Blocher being voted out of the Federal Council and the Federal People's Initiative “Popular Election of the Federal Council” , various media and political scientists brought the possibility of compliment voting into play at the beginning of the 21st century.

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Fink: Swiss journal for history. Pp. 216-218.
  2. ^ Fink: Swiss journal for history. P. 218.
  3. ^ Fink: Swiss journal for history. Pp. 218-219.
  4. ^ Fink: Swiss journal for history. Pp. 219-221.
  5. ^ Fink: Swiss journal for history. Pp. 222-223.
  6. ^ Fink: Swiss journal for history. Pp. 224-226.
  7. ^ Fink: Swiss journal for history. Pp. 226-227.
  8. ↑ Blocher as his successor. Neue Zürcher Zeitung , November 20, 2005, accessed on October 23, 2014 .
  9. ↑ The people should have a say in the re-election of the Federal Councilors. Tages-Anzeiger , July 6, 2011, accessed October 23, 2014 .