Grand Council BE Guaranteed seats for francophones to be strengthened

The planned strengthening of the guaranteed seats for francophones in the Biel-Seeland constituency has cleared its first parliamentary hurdle. The preliminary consultation committee supports the planned changes, as announced on Tuesday.

The French-speaking minority in the constituency is entitled to appropriate representation in the Grand Council. This is stipulated in the cantonal constitution. As there have been repeated discussions on how best to meet this entitlement, the cantonal government is proposing an amendment to the law on political rights.

This means that the French-speaking population will now be guaranteed as many mandates as their percentage share of the French- and German-speaking population in the constituency. Previously, the percentage was set in relation to the total population. This means that residents who speak other languages were also counted.

Furthermore, bilingual people will in future be counted equally in the German- and French-speaking population shares. If the demographic distribution remains the same, the new calculation would lead to an additional guaranteed seat for the French-speaking minority.

The Grand Council will consider the amendment to the law in the fall session. The new regulation is to be applied for the first time in the 2026 Grand Council elections.