Johann Schneider-Ammann of centre FDP/PLR, Merz’s party, joins Socialist in cabinet

Johann Schneider Ammann, Swiss federal council member, elected 2010

Johann Schneider-Ammann won 145 votes for his seat on the Federal Council; 119 were required for a majority vote

Complete coverage, Swiss Federal Council 2010 elections: background, Sommaruga win, Schneider-Ammann win

Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Political party balance won the day in Bern, as the second seat on the Swiss Federal Council went to Johann Schneider-Ammann, a centre-right PLR party member from Bern. Schneider-Ammann joins Simonetta Sommaruga from Bern, a Socialist. Each replaces a member of his or her own party on the seven-member ruling Federal Council.

Schneider-Ammann, an engineer with degrees from Zurich’s federal polytechnic institute EPH, and an MBA from Insead in Paris, gave his acceptance speech in German and French, then in halting, strongly accented Italian that had Italian-speakers in parliament smiling broadly.

New Swiss Federal Council, Bern, 22 September 2010 (former councillors Merz and Leuenberger climbed out the window seconds before). Swiss President Doris Leuthard is on the left, the chancellor, or cabinet chief of staff, who is not a member of the cabinet, is on the right, and beside her are the two newly-elected councillors

The emphasis on balance in electing the ruling council was preserved with a man and a woman elected, a Socialist and a centre-right politician, but two new members from Bern will slightly distort the balance of cantonal and regional representation.

Sommaruga’s background, with ties to many corners of Switzerland as well as abroad, and a good mastery of four languages, might soften the blow. She has strong family ties to canton Ticino, was born in Zug, grew up in Aargau and studied as a pianist in Rome and California. In 1993 she became president of the Swiss Consumer Protection Foundation, for six years.

Links to other sites: NZZ (Ger), wikipedia chart of Swiss political parties

Posted by Ellen Wallace on 22 September 2010 at 12:48, last updated on 28 September 2010 at 1:59 | permalink
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News story, GenevaLunch, 22 September 2010.

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Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported
This work by genevalunch.com is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported.