Simonetta Sommaruga and Johann Schneider-Ammann elected to the Swiss Federal Council
Simonetta Sommaruga, new Swiss federal councillor
Simone Sommaruga, Socialist rose in hand, accepts congratulations in Swiss Federal Assembly
Complete coverage, Swiss Federal Council 2010 elections: background, Sommaruga win, Schneider-Ammann win
Update 3 12:52 Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The Swiss Federal Council, or cabinet, will have a majority of women, with the election of Socialist Simonetta Sommaruga as the fourth of seven councillors.
She replaces Moritz Leuenberger, also a Socialist.
Sommaruga, from canton Bern, received 159 votes in a fourth round of voting. A candidate must have an absolute majority, 121 votes, to win the seat.
She defeated Jean-Françoise Rime, the only right-wing UDC candidate for the two open seats on the council, who received 81 votes.
Italian speakers lose their candidate
Pleading for Italian-speaking Swiss
The second and third rounds of voting for the second seat on the council began with most candidates receiving similar votes, prompting a second round of votes, but canton Ticino’s candidate, who received only 12 votes, bowed out after making a plea for the Swiss government to end the marginalization of Italian-speakers.
Background, Swiss Federal Council elections, GenevaLunch
This work by genevalunch.com is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported.
News story, GenevaLunch, 22 September 2010.
Tags: 7 federal councillors 2010, election, Federal Assembly, Johann Schneider-Ammann, Simone Sommaruga, Socialist, Swiss federal council, Swiss Federal Council 2010 elections, Swiss federal elections 2010, Switzerland, women in cabinet