Mié, Dic 13th 2023
The Greens launched their first official candidacy for a seat on the Federal Council in 2000, when they were seeking to succeed SVP Federal Councillor Adolf Ogi.
In 2007, Luc Recordon, a Green member of the Council of States from the canton of Vaud, ran against Christoph Blocher. When it became clear that Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf would win, Recordon withdrew from the race.
A year later, he stood again. This time it was to find a replacement for Samuel Schmid, who was stepping down. After the first round of voting, Recordon withdrew in favor of the Thurgau SVP National Councillor Hansjörg Walter. Ueli Maurer was elected.
In 2010, the Greens ran with Brigit Wyss from Solothurn – she was supposed to win the FDP seat of the retiring Hans-Rudolf Merz. Wyss only gained a few votes. The seat ultimately went to Johann Schneider-Ammann.
Four years ago, the Greens nominated National Councillor Regula Rytz (BE) to win an FDP seat. Rytz won 82 votes against Ignazio Cassis, but Cassis was elected at the first attempt. This time, it is no different.
Recent results
The United Federal Assembly has opted for continuity in the overall renewal of the government: All six previous members of the Federal Council were easily re-elected in the first round of voting. The Greens failed even more clearly than four years ago in their renewed attack on a government seat.
Cassis received significantly more votes than four years ago, when the Greens tried to force him out of office with Regula Rytz.
The election of the second member of the Federal Council from the Free Democratic Party, Karin Keller-Sutter, was also unchallenged. The St. Gallen native received 176 out of 224 valid votes and can therefore co-govern for another four years. The Greens had indicated immediately before the election that they would not contest Keller-Sutter’s seat.
Greens express disappointment
The Greens expressed their disappointment after the failed attack. Margot Chauderna, Co-President of the Young Greens Switzerland, told the Keystone-SDA news agency in Bern after the results were announced. Parliament is afraid of change.
It was unclear who in particular supported the 47-year-old Andrey in his attack on the FDP seat. Federal Council elections are secret.
However, the SP parliamentary group had declared in advance that only a minority would support Andrey in order to break up the conservative majority in the government. A majority of the Social Democrats considered the Greens’ candidacy to have no chance. They feared that support for Andrey could be misused to damage the SP and thus the left in the final election.
The GLP parliamentary group also announced in advance that part of the group would vote for Andrey instead of Cassis.
The SVP and the Center Party, on the other hand, did not want to change the party-political composition of the Federal Council. The parties had declared before the elections that they did not want to vote out any previous Federal Councillors.
©Keystone/SDA
Spanish 
English 
German 
French 
Arabic