The share of women in the National Council drops to 38.5 percent: which party leader has kept his word?

class=”sc-29f61514-0 icZBHN”>

Four years ago, many women celebrated the so-called women’s vote: female politicians won twenty new seats in the National Council. This meant that the share of women in the Grand Chamber suddenly rose from 32 to more than 40 percent, and there were suddenly more female faces in the Council of States.

Nevertheless, compared to their share of the population, women were still underrepresented in politics. The project ‘Helvetia is calling!’ wants to change that. written on the flags. And called on party betting leaders to push for even more ambitious targets ahead of this year’s elections.

After the elections, Blick takes stock: who has kept his promise?

SVP president Marco Chiesa (49) bet with national councilors Diana Gutjahr (39) and Céline Amaudruz (44) that the SVP will participate in the elections throughout Switzerland with more candidates than in 2019.

That was not that ambitious: four years ago, only 22 percent of all SVP candidates were women. This year it was 25 percent. So the SVP boss has won his bet.

However, the share of women in the SVP faction has fallen. There are only three women among the 21 newly elected SVP politicians. Only 12 of the 62 seats are occupied by women. This is one of the reasons why the proportion of women in the National Council will be lower than in the past four years: of the 200 National Council members, only 77 are women – seven fewer than four years ago.

Center chairman Gerhard Pfister (61) also promised that he would run for president of his Center Women’s Party with more female candidates. And even more: half of the best – i.e. top – places on the list should be filled by women. He wins the first part of the bet. The center managed to inspire more women to run for office than the CVP and BDP combined four years ago.

Pfister was also able to ensure that the right places in almost all canons were filled by women. However, in Schaffhausen the center found no candidate at all. Only Simon Stadler (35) took part in the Uri and Thomas Rechsteiner (51) in Appenzell Innerrhoden.

FDP leader Thierry Burkart (48) was particularly ambitious. He bet with FDP Women’s Chairman Susanne Vincenz-Stauffacher (56) that he could increase the share of women in the liberal parliamentary group to 40 percent. In the legislature that is now coming to an end, that is only 29 percent.

Even if Johanna Gapany (35), state councilor of Freiburg, manages to be re-elected in the second round, the Liberal Party will now have a women’s share of 34 percent. This means that Burkart clearly misses his target. The reason for this is that there are hardly any liberal women in the Council of States. So far, the FDP can only count on Petra Gössi (47).

The share of women in the small chamber is traditionally lower than in the National Council. From a women’s point of view, there are probably no signs of decline here. In 2019, 13 women were elected to the 46-member Council of States. At the time of writing, ten women have secured a seat.

However, promising female candidates will begin the second round of voting in Zurich, Solothurn and Freiburg.

A year ago, SP co-chair Mattea Meyer (35) and SP state councilor Min Li Marti (49) also promised that half of the places on the list would be given to women.

The analysis now shows: 230 people stood for the Social Democrats, of whom 127 were women. This corresponds to a share of 55 percent. With this, Meyer makes good on her bet. The self-proclaimed equality party also boasts a majority of women in the new National Council faction.

EPP chairman Lilian Studer (45) bets that her party will consist of at least 40 percent women. She also fulfilled her promise. 40 women and 36 men stood for the EPP, which corresponds to a women’s share of 53 percent.

There is still one big setback: because Studer himself was voted out, there are no longer any women in parliament for the EPP.

Green Party leader Balthasar Glättli (51) and GLP president Jürg Grossen (54) gave their word that at least 50 percent of Green and Green Liberal politics in the Federal Parliament would be determined by women in the new legislature. Both men achieved their goals, even though the Council of States has not yet been definitively filled because second rounds of voting are still taking place.

So many men were voted out of the Green Liberals on Sunday that the share of women in the National Council now stands at 70 percent. The new high percentage of women is not only a reason to be happy at GLP.

For the Greens, the share of women in the National Council now stands at 57 percent. You can also hope that in addition to the re-elected Maya Graf and Céline Vara (39), other women will find their way to the Council of States, then the number of female politicians in the parliamentary group will increase significantly.

Source:Blick