Who is in the race for the Federal Council? So far only rejections from the Greens: Rytz and Neukom don’t want that either

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The Greens don’t give much time to think about it. Brave people willing to participate in the Federal Council race must register by Friday.

The party decided this weekend that it wanted to attack one of the two FDP seats despite the election defeat on December 13. According to the reasoning, the liberals are currently over-represented in the Federal Council. Party leader Aline Trede (40) demanded that she now make room for a Green Party or a Green Party.

Of course the FDP doesn’t think about that. And the majority of the other parties are also unwilling to vote out a federal councilor. Almost no one – apart from the Greens themselves – would be interested in that.

The Greens are of course aware of this. And yet they still want to compete – on principle and as a statement. But who is available for this?

Blick shows who canceled everything – and who is still eligible to participate.

Mathias Zopfi (39): The Glarus Greens managed to wrest a seat in the Council of States from the SVP in 2019 – now he could try to challenge the FDP for a seat in the government. As a Green representative of a very bourgeois canton, politicized on the right-wing edge of his party: an advantage for a candidacy for the Federal Council. “I don’t rule out running for office,” he said this weekend when Blick asked him about it.

Lisa Mazzone (35): Mazzone currently has to worry about her re-election to the Council of States in Geneva. An election campaign for the Federal Council could give the Green Party vice-president the desired media attention, but at the same time there is a risk that he will get stuck. What speaks for her is that she is very well connected and speaks good German.

Bernhard Pulver (58): From 2006 to 2018, Pulver served as Bern’s director of education. The politician, who recently ran unsuccessfully for the Council of States of Bern, was able to demonstrate leadership experience. The handicap, however, is that he has never sat in federal parliament. And his origins will not help him either, after all, Albert Rösti (56), a Bernese, is already in the government.

Christine Hasler (60): Häsler is Pulver’s successor in the Bern government council. Unlike him, she served on the National Council from 2015 to 2018. Although that was too long ago to benefit from the contacts now.

Franziska Ryser (32): Besides Mazzone, the St. Gallen native is another young hope for the Greens in the Federal Council. In the spring she lost to SVP competitor Esther Friedli (46) in the race for the vacant seat of the Council of States in the canton. But her hour could yet come.

Manuela Weichelt (56): As a former government councilor in Zug, Weichelt has leadership experience. She has been a member of the National Council since 2019. In the coming days she will “talk seriously with her family and party about her candidacy for office,” she told the “Tages-Anzeiger”.

Gerhard Andrej (47): The Freiburg National Council is considering a candidacy. Like other potential candidates, his advantage is that, as a Greens coming from a rural canton, he is a moderate politician. He is also bilingual.

Bastien Girod (42): The Zurich National Council wanted to put itself forward if the Greens obtained an eleven percent share of the vote. They missed that. Due to the new situation, he is now considering whether to make himself available.

Maya Graf (61): Graf is a green veteran in Bern. The Basel resident served in the National Council from 2001 to 2019 and has since represented her canton in the Council of States. Now it would probably be the last chance for a candidacy for the Federal Council.

Brigit Wyss (63): The government councilor from Solothurn and former national councilor has already challenged the FDP once – in 2010, when it came to the successor of Federal Councilor Hans-Rudolf Merz (80). Now her age might militate against her running for office again. Or not?

Aline Trede (40): As parliamentary group leader, Trede leads the search for a candidate for the Federal Council. It is therefore very unlikely that she will put herself forward as a candidate – but she does not want to rule it out completely at the moment. She told SonntagsBlick that her candidacy was “not a priority” for her.

Rule Rytz (61): The Greens sent the Bernese woman to the final race for the Federal Council. In 2019, the then party leader challenged the FDP. Is the old candidate also the new one? “No, I am not available,” Rytz tells Blick. She was asked by her party a long time ago, but refused. This also has to do with her resignation from parliament in May 2022. “I have reorganized my life and I am very happy with it,” she says. She has even set up her own consultancy firm and is, among other things, Helvetas President. As a former president, she does not want to comment on the renewed attack by the Greens.

Balthasar Glättli (51): Even the party chairman does not want to hear about a candidacy. Glättli stands by his decision against a personal candidacy for the Federal Council, as he announced this weekend. But he was confident the Greens would submit a “convincing candidacy”.

Martin Neukom (37): At the age of 32, Neukom was elected to the Zurich Government Council in 2019. As construction director, he is responsible for an important green issue in the largest canton in Switzerland: the energy transition. He is also considered a pragmatic Greens, making him more electable than others. But Neukom doesn’t want to. “I am not available for a candidacy for the Federal Council,” he said when asked by Blick.

Greta Gysin (40): A candidacy for the Federal Council is currently excluded for the member of the National Council of Ticino. She wants to fully concentrate on the second round of the elections for the Council of States in Ticino, she tells the ‘Tages-Anzeiger’. There she challenges, among others, SVP president Marco Chiesa (49) and centrist politician Fabio Regazzi (61).

Irène Kälin (36): In 2021, the woman from Aargau was the highest-ranking Swiss woman as President of the National Council and thus gained fame. She says no to the Federal Council. As a mother of a small child, she does not currently trust herself to do this work, she told Tele Züri.

Source:Blick