The Greens can look back on a long series of failed candidacies for the Federal Council: stubborn failures

Maybe it’s just loyalty to principles. The Greens have had a long series of failed bids for the Federal Council. The goal was usually not to actually obtain a seat, but to initiate fundamental debates – about women’s representation, the magic formula or substantive issues.

As early as 1987 and 1991, the Greens, together with Leni Robert (87) from Bern, tried to improve the share of women in the Federal Council. Although she was not officially nominated, she received some protest votes. In 1995, four women, Cécile Bühlmann (73), Ruth Gonseth (80), Pia Hollenstein (73) and Franziska Teuscher (65), challenged the bourgeois, male government bastion with protest candidates – without success, with only 12 to 20 votes each. .

SVP in sight

The eco party was not discouraged by this: in 2000, Bühlmann from Lucerne was officially nominated for the first time as a green explosives candidate in the replacement elections for SVP man Adolf Ogi (81). She received 53 votes – and only had to give up after the fourth voting round. “At the time, it was less about the Greens’ claim to the seat than about the public attention the Greens received,” Bühlmann once said. “We were able to bring our ideas to the people in the ‘Arena’.”

The next attack on the SVP took place in 2007 – against Christoph Blocher (83), who had entered the state government in 2003. The Greens nominated then State Secretary Luc Recordon (68) to thwart the right-wing party. After Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf (67) declared her candidacy for explosives, the Greens withdrew their candidacy.

In 2008, the eco party Recordon entered the race again. This time to capture the seat of the retiring Samuel Schmid (76) and prevent the election of SVP man Ueli Maurer (72). Instead of Recordon, the Greens then voted for Hansjörg Walter (72), who was unwittingly introduced as an explosive candidate by the center left. The coup barely failed.

Green instead of FDP

When the liberal federal councilor Hans-Rudolf Merz (80) resigned in 2010, the Greens made a new attempt together with Brigit Wyss (63). This time the Greens did not focus on the SVP, but on the FDP. At the time, they had 9.6 percent of the voters and argued that “in purely mathematical terms they had a better claim to this Federal Council seat than the FDP to a second one.” With only 57 votes for Wyss, the eco party was defeated again.

But their argument has remained the same since then: Green instead of FDP! However, after the election defeats in 2011 and 2015, things remained quiet. That changed again with the green wave in 2019, when the Greens became the fourth strongest force with 13.2 percent. This inspired the party to question the magic formula again. With 82 votes, the then party leader Regula Rytz (61) could only achieve a respectable success as a challenger.

Rytz cannot be rerun this time. It is still unclear who will take command of the green hell. One thing is clear: this time too, failure is programmed!