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All seven previous members of the Schwyz government are running again. But two new candidates are also involved.
Two new candidates are challenging seven previous candidates: This is the starting point for the Schwyz government council elections on March 3rd.
The seven-member committee will appear again in corpore. The challenge for fresh faces to win a seat is correspondingly great. Because: The current members of the government have not made any major mistakes.
Bourgeois-conservative government has a tradition
Schwyz is currently run by a thoroughly bourgeois government. The cantonal executive is dominated by three SVP representatives. The FDP and the Center each hold two seats.
Construction director André Rüegsegger (SVP) and Petra Steimen (FDP) have been in office the longest – both made the leap into government in 2012. André Rüegsegger is currently Landammann, i.e. district president. Economics Director Petra Steimen is the only woman on the committee.
These seven previous ones want to know again
Center politician and education director Michael Stähli has been there since 2016. There were changes again in 2020: At that time, Herbert Huwiler (SVP), now Finance Director, and Environmental Director Sandro Patierno (center) joined the committee.
Security Director Xaver Schuler (SVP) and Damian Meier (FDP), head of the Department of the Interior, have only been part of the government since 2023.
Legend:
Is the old government of the canton of Schwyz also the new one? This question will be clarified in the elections on March 3rd. The picture shows the seven-member committee with state clerk Mathias E. Brun (right).
Keystone/Philipp Schmidli
The fact that all seven previous members want to know again is due to replacement elections in the recent past: a year and a half ago, two government councilors resigned during their term of office – Schuler and Meier took over.
The new arrivals were accompanied by a shake-up of offices: Petra Steimen swapped the Department of the Interior for the Directorate of Economic Affairs. And Herbert Huwiler gave up the security department in favor of the finance directorate.
The cards in the Schwyz government have already been thoroughly reshuffled at the end of 2022. There is therefore a lot to be said for the current crew benefiting from the previous bonus – and thus remaining at the helm in the future.
Two newcomers face a herculean task
The lack of a vacancy is viewed differently by the parties that are not represented in the government: the Green Liberals have decided not to run at all due to this constellation. The SP is different: it attacks with Jonathan Prelicz.
These two challenge the previous seven
SP cantonal councilor Prelicz wants to recapture the seat that his party lost to the SVP in 2012. As the fourth strongest political force, the SP is entitled to this mandate.
Peter Abegg jumped onto the candidate carousel almost at the last second. The farmer from Rothenthurm is entering the race as a non-party. The chances of the ninth candidate are likely to remain manageable: Abegg has already run for government twice without success.
What is different this time, however, is that behind Abegg are the “Frye Schwyzer” – a support committee around IT entrepreneur Josef Ender, who was one of the critics of the measures during the corona pandemic.
For the first time, ballot paper to mark
In the Schwyz government council elections, the candidates will be listed for the first time on a single, pre-printed ballot paper. This was decided by voters last year in order to prevent “party baggage”.
Observers assume that the race for the seven government seats will be decided in the first round of voting on March 3rd due to the new procedure.