Approximately 60 Percent of National Council Members Have a Municipal Background
Published: Friday, Oct 27th 2023, 10:41
Updated At: Saturday, Oct 28th 2023, 01:55
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Around 60 percent of the National Councilors and Councilors elected in the national elections of 2023 bring a local political background to the Federal Palace. Of the 119 elected, 34 are currently also active in local politics, as the Swiss Municipal Association (SGV) announced on Friday.
This year, according to the Swiss Association of Municipalities (SGV), the number of members of the National Council who are also active in a local executive or legislative body is significantly higher than in the previous legislative period from 2019 to 2023. The SGV expects this number to increase again after the second round of elections for the Council of States. Therefore, municipalities are the "strongest faction in Bern".
In the new legislative period, Zurich, as the most populous canton with 21 people, provides the National Council delegation with the most municipal experience, as the SGV further announced. This is followed by the canton of Vaud with 18 and the canton of Bern with 16 people. In Ticino, five of the eight National Council members are involved as municipal councillors, two more had previously held a militia office at the municipal level.
Trends also transcend language boundaries.
Generally, it is noticeable that the path to the Federal House in Switzerland, especially in the Latin part, mainly leads through the municipalities: Around 80 percent of all Western and Ticino parliamentarians held or hold an office at the local level. In the German-speaking part of Switzerland, those National Council members with municipal experience make up the majority at 52 percent, according to the SGV.
The prevalence of municipal parliaments in the French-speaking part of Switzerland is one of the reasons for the many politicians with a local background from the Latin Switzerland. According to the political scientist Adrian Vatter from the University of Bern, this automatically leads to more people having political experience at the local level.
In the West of Switzerland, there appears to be fewer political newcomers compared to the urban centers of the German-speaking part of the country.
©Keystone/SDA
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