Pfister is catching up in the Federal Council race Unthinkable a few weeks ago - suddenly Ritter has to tremble

Who will take over the DDPS after Viola Amherd? Just under a week before the election, Markus Ritter and Martin Pfister appear to be neck and neck. They now have to prove themselves to the left-wing camp next week. An overview.

Next Wednesday, the United Federal Assembly will decide who will become the 123rd member of the Swiss government. The successor to outgoing Defense Minister Viola Amherd will be chosen. With Martin Pfister and Markus Ritter, the center is putting forward two men for election.

The parties are currently putting the two candidates through their paces in hearings. On Tuesday afternoon, for example, the SVP, FDP and GLP parliamentary groups in Bern invited the candidates to a discussion, followed by the SP and Greens next Tuesday.

The hearings are key in the run-up to an election to the Federal Council. Parliamentarians are given the opportunity to form an impression of the candidates - their political positions, leadership style and suitability for one of Switzerland's highest offices.

Zug government councillor Pfister or St. Gallen national councillor Ritter - who has the edge? This is how the supporters and opponents of the candidates stand just under a week before the election.

The SVP has not yet decided on an election recommendation. The largest parliamentary group with a total of 74 parliamentary seats will discuss the procedure again next Tuesday - the day before the Federal Council election - as it announced after the hearings with the two Federal Council candidates.

For the SVP, the hearings focused on "key issues of security, defense capability and armed neutrality". The new head of the DDPS will have to be guided by the principle of "neutrality and deterrence". The SVP wants to measure the centrist candidates against this criterion.

Even if the SVP has not yet officially declared its support for a candidate, Markus Ritter is likely to have advantages. He is politically on the right edge of the center and, as president of the farmers' association, has made clever pacts with the SVP several times in recent years.

In terms of neutrality and foreign policy, he only wants to cooperate with other countries if Switzerland has "demonstrable" advantages - a formulation with which he is unlikely to make too many enemies in either the centre-right or left-wing camps.

For Martin Pfister, on the other hand, military cooperation with neighboring countries seems to be important. Nevertheless, he said after the hearing: "I am convinced I will get votes from the SVP." However, the majority of the largest parliamentary group is likely to back his rival.

The centrist party is entitled to a seat on the Federal Council, FDP party president Thierry Burkart told the media after the hearing. The talks had been "very intensive". Parliamentary group leader Damien Cottier added that the FDP parliamentary group was pleased that the centrists had presented an official ticket. The liberal-liberal group, with 38 votes in parliament, will stick to the two-person selection.

There is no clear favorite. The FDP recommends both candidates for election. It is therefore up to each member of the parliamentary group to decide who to vote for.

Markus Ritter, however, is likely to encounter broken porcelain, especially among the city's liberal members. As a top farmer, he has always campaigned doggedly for subsidies - and thus fought against free trade and a liberal economic policy.

Martin Pfister, on the other hand, comes from the economically strong canton of Zug - a donor canton that pays the most into the national financial equalization system in relation to its population. "I believe that I scored points", said Pfister after the meeting with the FDP. Above all, he emphasized his experience as a member of government in a financially strong canton.

His rival Markus Ritter, on the other hand, felt compelled to underline his commitment to the DDPS. He said he had no ambitions "as a long-time farmer president to take over the Department of Economic Affairs, for example". An indication that exactly this concern is rampant in the FDP.

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Unsurprisingly, the Centre Party is satisfied with its two candidates. At the end of February, when the candidates had to appear before their own parliamentary group, President Gerhard Pfister even spoke of "one of the best hearings I have ever attended as a long-standing National Councillor before Federal Council elections".

It remains to be seen who the party colleagues will ultimately vote for. Ritter is very well connected within the parliamentary group, which has 46 members. However, an analysis of over 1,800 votes in the current legislature shows that Ritter is one of the biggest dissenters within the party. In the National Council, only four centrist politicians have dissented more often than the 57-year-old.

Martin Pfister has reportedly used the past few weeks to make himself known in the federal parliament. It is difficult to predict whether this will be enough for his own parliamentary group to overtake the experienced parliamentarian Ritter.

Martin Pfister apparently convinced the Green Liberals at the hearing. "His position is closer to ours than that of Markus Ritter," said parliamentary group leader Corina Gredig. However, this is not yet an election recommendation for Pfister.

Her parliamentary group, which has 12 seats in parliament, will continue the discussion on a possible election recommendation for the successor to Federal Councillor Viola Amherd next week. "We have not yet voted." However, Pfister is closer to the goals of the Green Liberals than Ritter.

One of Pfister's advantages is his executive experience, says Gredig. On the other hand, Ritter has a great deal of knowledge "in his core dossiers". However, Ritter has not yet stood out for his green or liberal policies. Pfister, on the other hand, seems to have felt comfortable at the GLP hearing: "There was a lot of laughter", he told the media after the hearing. His confidence in GLP votes is probably justified.

Ritter is regarded as a power politician. As the top farmer, he presided over the strongest lobby in the Federal Parliament for years. He has left a lot of scorched earth in the left-wing camp with his attempts to exert pressure. This could now take its revenge, especially in a secret and anonymous election: In a Federal Council election, it is not made public who voted for whom.

It therefore seems entirely possible that many SP and Green parliamentarians will vote for Pfister to prevent Ritter. However, Pfister's candidacy has not met with enthusiasm from the left either. The accusation: as a member of the Zug cantonal government, he is politicking for the moneyed aristocracy, not for the people. In addition, Pfister also belongs to the right-wing fringe of the party.

However, there are also voices from the left-wing camp that attest to Ritter's hard hand, with which he could probably clean up the chaotic DDPS.

The hearings with the Greens and the SP on the day before the election are likely to be decisive. If Pfister succeeds in convincing a large proportion of the Green (26 seats) and Social Democrat (50 seats) parliamentary groups, his chances of winning a seat on the Federal Council are more than intact.

Either way, one thing is certain: the supposedly clear starting position at the beginning with favorite Ritter and outsider Pfister has now turned into an open race.

With material from the Keystone-SDA news agency

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