The Federal Council elections have not shaken the political system. But the Federal Assembly also made long-term decisions about the fates of politicians, animals and cities.
Albert Roesti, President of the Swiss Freibergerverband SFV, left, drives, accompanied by riders on Freiberger horses, with a team to present the SFV’s statement as part of the consultation on the revision of the Animal Breeding Ordinance at the Federal Office for Agriculture, on Monday, May 2nd, 2022, in Bern. The revision of the Animal Breeding Ordinance provides for the premiums for Freiberger horses to be halved on the one hand and the number of horses entitled to premiums to be reduced by two thirds on the other. (KEYSTONE/Peter Klaunzer)
winner
German-Swiss SP men
Malicious tongues say that some SP men voted for Elisabeth Baume-Schneider solely out of power calculations. You will never know for sure. But it is clear that the surprising choice of Romande plays into the hands of some social democrats east of the Röstigraben. Because now it is very likely that the second SP seat – if the party can hold it – will go to a man from German-speaking Switzerland after Alain Berset resigned.
There are some who could be considered, such as co-party president Cédric Wermuth or Jon Pult from Graubünden. If Eva Herzog had been elected on Wednesday, the ambitious young men’s chances of getting into the state government soon would have shrunk massively.
Black-nose sheep / Freiberger horses
Explaining Switzerland’s political system to German readers isn’t exactly sexy. Luckily there are federal elections, as the members of the state government are something like the royals of the Confederation. The whole thing works even better if you can combine it with animals. The “Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung” also knows this. The quality sheet also addresses the role that black-nose sheep played in the election. So what the corgis were to the queen, the black noses are to the new sun queen from the Jura.
However, Baume-Schneider is guilty of cultural appropriation by keeping blacknose sheep, as this breed is inextricably linked to the Upper Valais. Actually, EBS, as the new Federal Councilor is known for short, should have been photographed with the real popular figure in her immediate homeland: the Freiberger horse. But the tactician was smart enough to leave this to the President of the Swiss Freiberg Association. It is a certain Albert Rösti.
Wil
In a newly fueled urban-rural debate, the little town in eastern Switzerland is suddenly seen as the measure of all things. Because Wilerin Karin Keller-Sutter is the most urban Federal Councilor after the departure of Simonetta Sommaruga, who has been at home in Köniz and Bern for the past few years. But the liberals don’t really want to begrudge this label in the large, red-green-dominated cities.
Wil, a city? Yes, absolutely. After all, Wil has 24,000 inhabitants – more than Aarau or Baden -, a pretty old town and a FC that leads the second highest league and may soon be found again in the top tier of Swiss football. The city is also one of the winners because its flagship KKS is likely to be the strong woman in the Bundesrat in the future – as finance minister.
loser
West Swiss SP men
The union boss Pierre-Yves Maillard is one of those people who – because they are almost unstoppable – are described as a force of nature. Many citizens who were shocked by the stock saw the National Council of Vaud greet them from the Federal Council room. But for him and other French-speaking SP greats such as Roger Nordmann or the former party president Christian Levrat, the always cheerful Elisabeth Baume-Schneider became a fun brake.
The SP men’s seat will probably be occupied for years to come. As a consolation prize, Maillard can at least count on being elected to the Council of States next year. Then it will be seen whether he or Nordmann has enough staying power to come to power in old age. Donald Trump, Joe Biden and Konrad Adenauer prove that this is entirely possible.
Daniel Jositsch
The next SP Federal Councilor will be a man and preferably comes from a big city. That’s the general prognosis after the surprise election of a rural Jura woman. If you tap the members of the SP parliamentary group in the Bundestag on these criteria, you come across pretty much one name: Daniel Jositsch. If you had to bet on which SP man would definitely not become a member of the Federal Council, you would also bet on Daniel Jositsch with advantage. But the advantage of an I-AG is known to be its flexibility. Rumors are already circulating that Jositsch is knocking on the door of the GLP to run again under a new label. Jositsch will certainly get information on how such a change of party goes smoothly from his former partner Chantal Galladé.
donor cantons
The poorhouses rule Switzerland. After the resignation of Ueli Maurer, there is no longer a representative of a donor canton in the state government. He will be replaced by Albert Rösti from Bern, whose canton receives the most money from fiscal equalization. For the first time, Jura is the canton that collects the most compensation payments per inhabitant. Fiscal policy competence seems to have become an exclusion criterion. After all, three representatives of donor cantons fell by the wayside: Hans-Ueli Vogt from Zurich, Heinz Tännler, finance director from Zug, and his counterpart in Nidwalden, Michèle Blöchliger.
Alain Berset
For Alain Berset, Wednesday was not only a bad day because he only got 140 votes in the election for the Federal President from 232 ballot papers. But also because the pressure is now increasing that he will soon give up his position. As the longest-serving magistrate, he is part of a Latin majority in the Federal Council that does not correspond to the situation in the population. And he is now one of two SP magistrates in western Switzerland – a situation that his own party believes should not last forever.
In the interior department there is not much more to achieve for the Freiburger. He has managed the first AHV reform in 25 years, in the blocked health policy hardly any major breakthroughs are possible. And he missed the chance of a fresh start in a new department during the distribution on Thursday.
Basel area
It is not surprising that in the city of Basel the disappointment that Eva Herzog was not chosen is huge. After all, the half-canton has been waiting for a Federal Council for 49 years. But there is also a hangover in the other half of Basel. Because even from the bourgeois camp, numerous politicians from Basel had campaigned for Herzog, such as Elisabeth Schneider-Schneiter (middle), Sandra Sollberger (SVP) or Daniela Schneeberger (FDP). Somehow a BS Federal Councilor would obviously also have been a BL Federal Councilor. This is despite the fact that the two Basels are often strangers to each other politically. This was particularly evident in 2014 in the vote on a merger of the two half-cantons: while the city’s population wanted to start the process of reunification, the Basel bidders said no.