Basel-Stadt Elects All-Female Delegation to Bern
Published: Monday, Oct 23rd 2023, 04:52
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For the first time in its history, the Canton of Basel-City is sending an all-female delegation to the Federal House: On Sunday, four former National Councillors were re-elected and Eva Herzog (SP) achieved the best result in the Council of States elections in 40 years. The SP lost one seat in the National Council. Mustafa Atici (SP) failed to be re-elected to the Grand Chamber. The four other incumbents, Sarah Wyss (SP), Patricia von Falkenstein (LDP), Sibel Arslan (Green/Basta) and Katja Christ, were re-elected. In a surprise result, Basel-Stadt is the only canton in Switzerland with an all-female representation in both chambers. This was largely due to the success of Sarah Wyss, who was at risk of losing her seat within the SP. However, she achieved the best result with 22,032 votes, even more than the first-placed candidate in the 2019 elections, current Basel government president and federal council candidate Beat Jans (SP). Sibel Arslan has come in second place with 14,239 votes, followed by Patricia von Falkenstein with 9,792 votes and Katja Christ with 6,655 votes. The most prominent candidate among the new contenders, former government councillor Baschi Dürr (FDP), failed to make it into the National Council. While the LDP and SP suffered losses in voter share, the Mitte and GLP were able to gain ground. The LDP lost 4.5 percentage points. In Basel, the Swiss People's Party (SVP) overtook the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) as the strongest conservative party with 12.4 percent of the vote, but had no chance of winning a seat in the National Council. Meanwhile, the alliance between the Social Democratic Party (SP), the Green Party and Basta, and the Block with the LDP, FDP, GLP, Mitte and EVP fought for the four instead of five seats in the National Council. The red-green alliance achieved a voter share of almost 49 percent, while the conservative alliance achieved 34.4 percent. The best result in the Council of States (Ständerat) since Miville has been achieved. Eva Herzog, the incumbent Council of States representative, received 42,677 votes in the recent election. According to the Federal Chancellery, no one has been able to bring in as many votes to the Council of States as Herzog in the last four decades, since SP Council of States representative Carl Miville. The former Basel Finance Director and unsuccessful Federal Council candidate last year received 13,469 votes, surpassing the absolute majority of 29,208 votes. Far behind her was Balz Herter (center). The well-connected and well-known president of the center and councilor of Basel only received 6959 votes. Closely behind him was SVP president and councilor Pascal Messerli with 6730 votes. Delays in the final results. This year, more people from Basel cast their ballots. The turnout for the Council of States was 51.4 percent, and for the National Council it was 49.7 percent. That is two percent higher than four years ago. The announcement of the final results was significantly delayed. The results of the Council of States elections were delayed by three and a half hours, and those of the National Council elections by more than an hour and a half. According to the State Chancellery, the control of the counted ballots was not yet completed at the scheduled time. ©Keystone/SDA
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