Initiative for confirmation election of Federal Council members fails
Published: Monday, Nov 18th 2024, 11:50
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The members of the Federal Council do not have to be confirmed in office by the people and the cantons every two years. A popular initiative by the Freedom Movement Switzerland (FBS) with this demand has failed.
The initiative was not submitted with a sufficient number of signatures by the collection deadline of November 16, according to Monday's edition of the Federal Gazette. The initiative committee had wanted to make the individual members of government more accountable.
If the people are not satisfied, they should be able to dismiss the departmental leadership, it was said at the launch of the initiative "Confirmation of Federal Councillors by the people and the cantons". Every two years, the people and the cantons should have confirmed the members of the federal government in office.
The people should not elect the members of the government themselves because, in the opinion of the initiators, the people were not familiar enough with these individuals. Instead, the initiators stated at the time that a corrective was needed to remove "incompetent" members of the Federal Council from office.
The Freedom Movement emphasized that its initiative did not want the same thing as a referendum petition by the SVP for a popular election of the Federal Council. This initiative was clearly rejected in 2013.
A popular election of the Federal Council also failed to gain majority support in 1900 and 1942. Moreover, popular election was already under discussion when the federal state was founded, but was rejected by the framers of the constitution in 1848. Parliament was to elect the Federal Council, as is still the case today.
©Keystone/SDA
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