from bottom to top

(Almost) all parliamentarians want to be in the Bundesrat. The Presidents of the National Council and Council of States also enjoy the limelight. And are allowed to resign from office after one year.

Brigitte Häberli is the new President of the Council of States.

Anthony Anex / Keystone

When the National Councils and Councils of States elect their presidents at the beginning of each winter session, it is purely a matter of form. In the sober parliamentary machinery, however, there is a welcome moment of celebration when the freshly elected sit in the presidential chair for the first time, emphasize the advantages of Swiss consensus democracy in a speech and invite the artists they have brought with them to a musical interlude. Brigitte Häberli (centre), the highest member of the Council of States since Monday, chose the trio Artemis from Eastern Switzerland. A violinist, a cellist and a pianist heated up the plenum with Aram Khachaturian’s saber dance.

Pupils may now remember their former music teacher Brigitte Häberli when they see pictures of her. She taught children to play the recorder, probably the most democratic instrument in Switzerland. Many musical careers began with playing the small piece of wood, for others the recorder was both the beginning and the end of the journey. Häberli’s former commitment is still emphasized today, sometimes with a mocking undertone. She takes it well, it’s rather harmless, she recently told the “St. Gallen daily newspaper. It was always with joy that she made it possible for the children to get started with music.

Häberli did the classic ox tour. The trained businesswoman and mother of three adult children was a municipal councilor in Bichelsee-Balterswil in Hinterthurgau, then a member of the council. In 2003 she was elected to the National Council, and in 2011 she moved to the Council of States. In Sunday speeches, such a political course from the smallest political unit to Bern, as Häberli has completed, is often praised as exemplary. But perhaps the much-cited rise from local politician to Federal Councilor was always more wishful thinking than reality.

Unpretentious politician from Hinterthurgau

The 64-year-old Häberli is considered an unpretentious politician. Before the last elections, it looked as if she would be the only woman in the Council of States in the new legislature. Long-standing politicians resigned at the end of 2019, and there were no successors in sight. Häberli hoped that the lack of women would trigger a female mobilization effect. But she didn’t play the women’s card to score points with voters. It turned out quite differently than feared: 13 women were elected to the Council of States.

Now there is even a premiere at the Stöckli: for the first time, three women take over the presidency on Monday. In addition to Häberli, these are the Federal Council candidate Elisabeth Baume-Schneider (1st Vice President) and Lisa Mazzone (2nd Vice President). Nevertheless: Häberli is only the fifth woman to chair the small chamber.

In terms of protocol, Häberli has now risen from rank 10 as an ordinary member of the Council of States to rank 3 with her election as President. Above her in the hierarchy of state offices are only the President of the National Council and the Federal Council as a whole. This is one of the reasons why the presidency is so popular among parliamentarians. You become a political eunuch for a year. But you can bask in the limelight, receive foreign guests and travel yourself.

Incidentally, the unequal treatment of the National Council and the Council of States in terms of ranking has already met with criticism – unsurprisingly in the Council of States. Andrea Caroni complained that the Federal Council violated the equal treatment of the two chambers and their members with the protocol regulations approved in 2017. The Federal Constitution requires that the members of the Council of States (rank 10 in the Protocol Regulations) have the same rank as the members of the National Council (rank 9). On the other hand, the precedence of the President of the National Council over the President of the Council of States is unproblematic. The Federal Council was willing to examine an adjustment.

Romansh energy in the National Council

The National Council has also been presided over by a center politician since Monday. Martin Candinas follows Irène Kälin (Greens). And like Häberli, Candinas also comes from a peripheral region. He comes from Rabius in the Vorderrheintal. He now lives in Chur with his wife and three children. In Bern, he is committed to the mountain region, fighting with advances to contain the wolf or cushion the second home initiative. Nationally, he campaigned for paid paternity leave.

The cheerful Candinas attracts attention in the National Council because he consistently begins his speeches with a Rhaeto-Romanic greeting. He wants to expand the use of his mother tongue during his year as President. He has already implemented this plan for the first time in a presidential speech. Candinas is one of only three Romansh-speaking politicians in the Federal Parliament.

Appropriately, the Choir d’affons da Sumvitg sang two songs from Candina’s homeland on Monday. Around fifty children from the upper Surselva brought local color to the National Council Hall.

source site-111