What a legal coup! For the first time in a long time, Parliament does not simply choose a favorite. But Elisabeth Baume-Schneider (58), member of the State Council of the Jura SP and an outsider in these elections to the Federal Council.
The clear favorite was the deputy of the State Council of Basel, Eva Herzog (60), because she is more famous and is considered more experienced and thorough. There are many indications that C. P. Baume-Schneider only put forward the candidacy so that the Duke would be elected with certainty.
She’s confused about it. On the one hand, for reasons of power politics, several parties are more interested in a conciliatory French SP federal councilor than a tough Swiss-German one.
On the other hand, a person means more than you think. In the end, parliamentarians decide for themselves who to write on their ballot. And this is definitely not the kind of person you’ve ever had a bad experience with.
The Duke is not only seen as cool and aloof, many MPs also say, “Before she became a candidate, she never said hello to me!” And then there was this fresh, happy, carefree girl from the Jurassic period who won the hearts…
Now Basel is furious because after nearly 50 years of waiting for its Federal Council, it has not worked again. The cities are annoyed that there are no citizens in the Federal Council. Some German-speaking Swiss resent the fact that Latin-speaking Switzerland now has a majority.
It’s great that the youngest of all cantons is represented for the first time in the Federal Council in its 45th year of existence!
And when is the Federal Council balanced? German-speaking Switzerland, French-speaking Switzerland, Ticino, male, female, urban, rural, donor canton, recipient canton, you can add learned/unlearned, hetero/homo/non-binary, rich/poor, second/original Swiss… The list is endless there is no perfect combination. This is also not decisive: our democracy works just as well if Latin Switzerland and rural Switzerland are overrepresented for a certain period of time.
More importantly, yesterday, together with Albert Rösti (55) and Elisabeth Baume-Schneider, two members were elected to the Federal Council who represent the opposite of Ueli Maurer’s “Kei Luscht”: they both exude incredible joy in their position – joy combined with respect before the task. And people think they want the best for Switzerland, not primarily for themselves or their party.
These are very good prerequisites. How someone manifests himself in the Federal Council, all the same, shows only in practice.