Showdown in Bern Everything you need to know about the Federal Council election

On Wednesday, the United Federal Assembly will elect a new Federal Councillor. How does an election like this work? And what's the ticket all about? In the overview you will find interesting facts about the Federal Council election.

Keystone-SDA

12.03.2025, 06:27

12.03.2025, 07:02

SDA

The United Federal Assembly, i.e. the National Council and the Council of States, meet in the National Council chamber for the election. That is a total of 246 parliamentarians. As a rule, the individual parliamentary groups make an election recommendation. However, every member of the Council is free to cast their vote and the election is secret. This means that after the election, it is not known who voted for whom.

The Parliament Act stipulates how the elections are to be conducted. Anyone who clears the absolute majority hurdle, i.e. receives half of all valid votes plus one, is elected. Blank and invalid ballot papers are not counted.

The number of ballots is unlimited. All eligible candidates can be elected in the first two ballots. From the third ballot onwards, no new candidates are permitted. And from the second ballot onwards, anyone who has received fewer than ten votes is eliminated. From the third ballot onwards, the candidate who has received the fewest votes is no longer eligible, unless two or more people have received the same number of votes.

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If a candidate has achieved an absolute majority, he or she is theoretically elected. To be officially elected, however, the election must also be accepted.

If the election is confirmed, the swearing-in ceremony follows immediately. The new Federal Councillor takes an oath or vow. The difference: when taking an oath, you swear before God to respect the constitution and the laws and to fulfill the duties of the office. With a vow, you swear the same, but without referring to God. In addition, three fingers are usually raised in the air when taking an oath, whereas a hand is placed on the heart when making a vow.

The program of a new Federal Councillor is packed. After the swearing-in ceremony, the newly elected member of the national government, accompanied by the Federal Council Speaker, goes to the Salon de la Présidence, where he or she is received by the College of Federal Councillors. They then return to the parliament building for a tour of the media present. A media conference is also planned for later in the day.

In addition, the delegations of the party, the home canton, the home municipality as well as relatives and friends usually organize one or more receptions.

The Center Party has nominated Martin Pfister, Health Director of Zug, and Markus Ritter, National Councillor from St. Gallen, to succeed Viola Amherd from Valais. Pfister would be the third person from Zug in the national government and Ritter the seventh from St. Gallen. If Ritter is elected, the canton of Eastern Switzerland would be represented twice in the Federal Council, as Karin Keller-Sutter, a member of the Free Democrats, also comes from the canton of St. Gallen. There are currently four cantons that have never had a member of the Federal Council: Schaffhausen, Uri, Schwyz and Nidwalden.

Since 1999, the constitution has stipulated that the national regions and language regions must be "adequately" represented in the Federal Council. Based on the proportion of the population, just under a third of the College should come from the French, Italian and Romansh-speaking regions. That would be around 2.3 members of the Federal Council.

Following the election of Elisabeth Baume-Schneider (SP) from Jura at the end of 2022, the "Latin" language area was temporarily clearly overrepresented: Baume-Schneider, Alain Berset (SP) from Fribourg, Guy Parmelin (SVP) from Vaud and Ignazio Cassis (FDP) from Ticino sat opposite Karin Keller-Sutter (FDP) from St. Gallen, Viola Amherd (center) from Upper Valais and Albert Rösti (SVP) from Bern for a year - until Beat Jans from Basel replaced Alain Berset.

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The parliamentary groups that have a seat to fill in the Federal Council propose a ticket with names to the United Federal Assembly. It is customary to adhere to these election proposals. However, Parliament is not obliged to do so. Voting is by secret ballot. Who voted for whom is not disclosed. In principle, any person entitled to vote in Switzerland can be elected to the Federal Council. Members of the Federal Council may not hold any other position with the Confederation or a canton, nor may they have any other gainful employment.

Since 1943, the four parties with the highest number of votes have been represented in the Federal Government. The SVP, SP and FDP each currently have two members of the Federal Council and the center one. This seat will be reallocated following the resignation of Viola Amherd on March 12. Recent electoral successes by the Greens and poor results by the FDP have called the magic formula into question, but have nevertheless allowed it to continue. The centrists, on the other hand, who were successful in the recent elections, are aiming for a second Federal Council seat in the medium term.

With the resignation of Viola Amherd (center), the relatively unpopular Department of Defense, Civil Protection and Sport (DDPS) will become vacant. The departments will be redistributed by the newly composed Federal Council before the new minister takes office on April 1.

The principle of seniority plays a central role here: the longer someone has been in office, the more freedom of choice there is. The newcomer must take what is left. The distribution of departments is only put to the vote if the seven members of the Federal Council cannot agree. So far there has been no news of any desire to change before the upcoming distribution round; it is therefore likely that the newcomer will take over the Defense Department.

Amherd's successor has been elected until December 2027, after which he will have to stand for re-election along with the other six members of the government.

From January 1, 2025, the gross annual salary of members of the Federal Council will be around CHF 478,000. The salary will be adjusted for inflation, but there will be no real salary increase, according to the Swiss government portal. In addition, there will be an annual expenses allowance of CHF 30,000 plus the cost of telecommunications. The President of the Swiss Confederation receives an additional compensation of CHF 12,000 in the presidential year.

Members of the Federal Council and the Federal Chancellor are entitled to a representative vehicle and a company car for personal use. Each member of the government receives a first-class SBB coach.

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