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2025 Swiss Federal Council election

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By-elections to the Swiss Federal Council will be held on 12 March 2025, after federal councillor Viola Amherd (The Centre-VS) announced that she will leave the Council at the end of March of the same year.[1][2] There had been rumour about her resignation for some time. The announcement overshadowed the main topic of her press conference on January 15, 2025: the reorganisation of compulsory service in the army and civil protection.[1]

Per an informal agreement between the political parties known as the magic formula, only Centre candidates are expected to stand for Amherd's seat, ensuring the partisan balance would be retained. So far only national councillor Markus Ritter [de] has announced his candidacy[3] after several prominent members of The Center Party declined to run,[4] amongst them the outgoing leader of The Center Party Gerhard Pfister who had been speculated to be a strong favourite to succeed Amherd.[5]

Background

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The current Federal Council. Amherd is on the far right of the picture.

In Switzerland, the 7-seat executive Federal Council is elected by the Federal Assembly (both chambers of the legislature sitting together); in practice it is apportioned between the parties following the unwritten agreement known as the "magic formula". The formula was followed from 1959 to 2003 and in a different composition between 2003 and 2007 and again since 2015. Since 2016 the composition has been: SVP 2 seats, SP 2 seats, FDP 2 seats, and Die Mitte (succeeding the CVP) 1 seat.

Federal councillors are traditionally re-elected until they step down; only four have ever lost re-election.[6] Councillors tend to stand down during their term in order to ensure their party retains their seat and to allow their party to get more visibility at a moment other than shortly after a general election. These election would be the first since December 2023 to elect a new councillor.

Viola Amherd, a center politician of the Canton of Valais has been a member of the Federal Council since 1 January 2019 and heads the Federal Department of Defence, Civil Protection and Sport (DDPS). After the 2023 swiss federal election, she was re-elected in the 2023 Federal Council election for the 2024-2027 term of office. On 15 January 2025, however, she announced her early resignation at the end of March 2025.

Swiss media outlets, including Blick, Neue Zürcher Zeitung and Watson, had reported on a possible resignation in the weeks around the turn of the year. On January 6, 2025, the center party president Gerhard Pfister announced his resignation as party leader. In connection with Pfister's resignation, his ambitions for the Federal Council office were publicly discussed.  A few days before Amherd's resignation announcement, the SVP criticized Amherd's conduct in office at a meeting of the party cadre. SVP representatives called for Amherd's resignation.  Calls for resignation are considered unusual in Switzerland,  which is why other parties criticized the demand.[7]  So far, no other resignations have been announced although there have been discussions around possible retirements of Ignazio Cassis and Guy Parmelin.[8][9]

Electoral system

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The seats are elected using an absolute majority with an exhaustive ballot, each seat being filled independently. In the first two rounds members of the Federal Assembly can vote for anyone eligible, but only those receiving at least ten votes are announced in the results; from the third round onwards only candidates who received at least ten votes in one of the first two rounds are eligible, the last-placed candidate is eliminated until someone reaches an overall majority.[10][11]

Candidates

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There had been a considerable amount of speculation about who might succeed Amherd even before she announced her resignation. However in the week after she had made the announcement most of the people that the media speculated might run declined to run mainly citing a lack of interest in the job.[4] Outgoing The Center party leader Gerhard Pfister and National Councillor Martin Candinas who had generally been viewed as the favorites both declined to run. The Center party has set up a taskforce (Findungskommission) to find candidates.[12] Only National councillors Philipp Kutter and Markus Ritter [de] expressed interest. However ultimately Kutter declined to run citing a desire to spend more time with his family.[13] Kutter is quadriplectic and would have been the first Federal Councillor with a motor disability. Ritter has officially declared his candidacy and has been nominated by his cantonal party.[3]

Declared Candidacy

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Declined to run

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Amongst the most prominent to have declined to run are:

Amongst those that have neither declared their candidacy nor declined to run the most prominent are Christophe Darbellay who was the leader of the CVP party before Pfister and National Councillor Elisabeth Schneider-Schneiter.

References

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  1. ^ a b swissinfo.ch, S. W. I. (2025-01-15). "Swiss Defence Minister Viola Amherd announces resignation". SWI swissinfo.ch. Retrieved 2025-01-17.
  2. ^ 15.01.2025 - BR Amherd zu ihrem Rücktritt und der Weiterentwicklung des Dienstpflichtsystems. Retrieved 2025-01-17 – via www.youtube.com.
  3. ^ a b Briellmann, Sebastian (2025-01-28). "Endlich hat Die Mitte einen Kandidaten: Markus Ritter gibt seine Kandidatur bekannt". Neue Zürcher Zeitung (in Swiss High German). ISSN 0376-6829. Retrieved 2025-01-31.
  4. ^ a b NZZ-Inlandredaktion (2025-01-18). "Wer bleibt noch? Die Mitte und die Suche nach einem Bundesrat für die Amherd-Nachfolge". Neue Zürcher Zeitung (in Swiss High German). ISSN 0376-6829. Retrieved 2025-01-31.
  5. ^ a b Neuhaus, Christina (2025-01-19). "Gerhard Pfisters Verzicht offenbart die tiefen Gräben in seiner Partei". Neue Zürcher Zeitung (in Swiss High German). ISSN 0376-6829. Retrieved 2025-01-31.
  6. ^ Council, The Federal. "Federal councillor: from election to departure". www.admin.ch. Retrieved 2025-01-17.
  7. ^ swissinfo.ch, S. W. I. (2025-01-13). "Pfister criticises People's Party calls for Amherd's resignation". SWI swissinfo.ch. Retrieved 2025-01-17.
  8. ^ Bruggmann, Tobias (2025-01-16). "Alle Augen auf Ignazio Cassis: Das Pokerspiel um den FDP-Sitz". Blick (in Swiss High German). Retrieved 2025-01-17.
  9. ^ "Will Amherd's decision soon force Cassis to resign?". blue News. Retrieved 2025-01-17.
  10. ^ Talos, Christine (2018-12-03). "Élection au Conseil fédéral: le mode d'emploi" [Election to the Federal Council: the manual]. Lematin.ch (in French). Retrieved 2022-09-10.
  11. ^ Council, The Federal. "Federal Council election". www.admin.ch. Retrieved 2025-01-31.
  12. ^ srubin (2025-01-20). "Nominationsverfahren zur Nachfolge von Viola Amherd eröffnet — Die Mitte" (in German). Retrieved 2025-01-31.
  13. ^ Venetz, Matthias (2025-01-29). "Bundesratswahl: Philipp Kutter will nicht Bundesrat werden". Neue Zürcher Zeitung (in Swiss High German). ISSN 0376-6829. Retrieved 2025-01-31.
  14. ^ "Gerhard Pfister über über seinen Rücktritt als Mitte-Präsident". Schweizer Radio und Fernsehen (SRF) (in German). Retrieved 2025-01-31.
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