Popular election of the Federal Council

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The popular election of the Federal Council is an issue in Switzerland that should be pushed through in different ways. While the seven-member government of Switzerland, the Federal Council , is elected by both chambers of parliament as the United Federal Assembly according to the constitution , there have been and there are efforts to have the government voted directly by the people in order to strengthen direct democracy . Proponents of this reproach that democracy is further realized at the cantonal level than at the federal level, since cantonal governments and cantonal parliaments are elected by the people.

history

The Geneva journalist and politician James Fazy had previously called for the Federal Council to be elected by the people in 1871 in order to be able to break up the "small entanglements of the cliques" through the "best possible separation of state powers". In the second half of the 19th century there was an indirect form of popular election with the election of compliments : incumbent federal councilors ran for national councilors in order to have their legitimacy as government members confirmed by the voters; only then was re-election by the Federal Assembly.

A first popular initiative was decided on September 25, 1898 by an action alliance consisting of the Grütliverein, the trade union federation, the Eastern Swiss Democrats and the SPS, as well as the social-political group of the National Council. With the federal popular initiative “for the popular election of the Federal Council and the increase in the number of members”, they demanded the election of the Federal Council by the people and its increase from seven to nine members.

In 1939 the Social Democrats again submitted the popular initiative "for the election of the Federal Council by the people and increasing the number of members" . She also called for the Federal Council to be enlarged from seven to nine members and for it to be elected by the people. The project was also popular with the frontists . In 1942 this initiative was clearly rejected with 67.6% no votes. In the previous parliamentary debate, the opponents pointed out that the discussion about the popular election was detrimental to the interests of the country and to public peace in the face of wartime; There was even a point of order asked to postpone the initiative to end the war.

In September 2008, the Social Democratic Federal Councilor Micheline Calmy-Rey again supported the idea in a debate about the credibility of the state government. National Councilor Josef Zisyadis from the Labor Party called for the popular election with a parliamentary initiative that was rejected by the National Council's State Political Commission.

In 2010 the Swiss People's Party relaunched the idea with its popular initiative “ Popular election of the Federal Council” . The initiative was clearly rejected by the people and the cantons on June 9, 2013.

Positions

Opponents of the popular election of the Federal Council accuse the idea that it disadvantages linguistic and regional minorities. It also leads to a so-called "Americanization" of government elections, through which people with large and expensive campaigns or populists are elected. The proponent of the initiative, Ernst Krebs, dealt in his constitutional dissertation in 1965 with the popular election of the Federal Council. He was of the opinion that the principle of popular sovereignty required the «election of government by the people par excellence». In order to achieve a clean separation of powers, Parliament must limit itself to legislation.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Paul Fink: The election of compliments of incumbent Federal Councilors in the National Council 1851-1896 . In: Swiss History Journal . tape 45 , no. 2 . Swiss Society for History , 1995, ISSN  0036-7834 , p. 214–235 , doi : 10.5169 / seals-81131 .
  2. ↑ Flyer from 1942
  3. ↑ tagesanzeiger.ch: Calmy-Rey: «People should vote for the Federal Council»
  4. ↑ Information from the Federal Chancellery , accessed on June 9, 2013