Simonetta Sommaruga (62) is worried about her husband. Lukas Hartmann (78) is currently in hospital. For that reason, the federal councilor is absent for the time being, the Sommaruga department announced on Monday.
For the Federal Council, this means that it has to rule with six members for the time being. At committee meetings, working visits and other appointments, it is common for an absent federal councilor to be represented by experts from the department. The same applies to the state government as to all jobs: the shop continues to run without a boss.
Important discussions are postponed
However, Sommaruga cannot be represented by a chief officer at the weekly meeting of the Federal Council. That is not a problem, however. “It happens time and again that federal councilors are absent from a meeting,” said federal council spokesman André Simonazzi. After all, even a federal councilor gets the flu or a corona infection.
If there is an important political discussion about a file that affects the absent federal councilor, it is postponed, says Simonazzi.
In case of emergency, deputy takes over
If a magistrate is absent for an extended period of time, there is a deputy regulation. Who takes over whose deputy is always arranged with the allocation of departments, which takes place after the elections of the Federal Council. If necessary, Defense Minister Viola Amherd (60) should stand in for Simonetta Sommaruga.
The deputy would continue the official affairs and represent the position of the absent Federal Councilor, for example at meetings of the Federal Council or in so-called co-reports, ie matters concerning affairs of other departments.
Blocher’s secret operation
It is rare for the alternate rule to come into play. It became necessary, for example, when former Finance Minister Hans-Rudolf Merz (79) suffered a heart attack in the middle of the UBS crisis in 2008. Deputy Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf (66) then stepped in for the FDP colleague.
However, when two years earlier the then CVP federal councilor Joseph Deiss (76) had to go under the knife because of a hernia, he continued his business from the hospital. He switched over to meetings by telephone from his sick bed.
The public doesn’t always notice that a federal councilor is absent for a period of time. In at least one case, even the colleagues of the Bundesrat knew nothing about it: How old Bundesrat Christoph Blocher revealed years later that he had undergone a secret operation on his intestines in 2005 – while he was officially on a birthday trip abroad would be. He reported to the hospital under a false name and entered the hospital through the service entrance, the SVP said. At the time, secrecy was not well received by everyone. (lha)