Swiss parliament in session Photo ©Swiss parliament
Election could create first European cabinet with women in majority
Complete coverage, Swiss Federal Council 2010 elections: background, Sommaruga win, Schneider-Ammann win
Update 09:00 Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The world has a rare opportunity Wednesday 22 September to see what balance of power really means, as defined by the Swiss: parliament will elect two new councillors out of seven on the governing Federal Council, sometimes referred to in English as the cabinet. The parliamentary vote is the result of the resignation announced several weeks ago by two long-serving council members, Hans-Rudolf Merz in August and Moritz Leuenberger, in July. Both agreed to remain in office until new councillors were elected.
The Federal Council is at the heart of a political system that emphasizes continual balance and negotiation, with no one party holding the power. The seven members’ council debates are not public and they rule by consensus, so council decisions are announced only once they have come to an agreement on an issue or new law.
Collegiality, or not airing their differences, has been the norm for at least two decades, with occasional blips where one councillor is viewed by the others as stepping out of line. Christoph Blocher, member of the right-wing UDC party, upset the council with several public remarks in 2008 that were considered unrepresentative of the council’s stance on issues, and his failure to be re-elected sparked an ongoing Swiss debate over precisely how the main political parties should be represented on the council.
The election process and a solar bird overhead
The Federal Assembly, the body of both houses of parliament, will elect first a successor to Leuenberger, as the councillor who has served longer, then a successor to Merz.
Moritz Leuenberger sooner-than-anticipated departure will allow parliament to vote at once for two new cabinet ministers
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch.com) – Swiss Federal Councillor Moritz Leuenberger (above right), current Minister of Transport, Communications, Energy and Environment, is bringing forward his departure date from the Federal Council, from December to October, to allow parliament to vote for two new ministers at once.
The announcement came in on 9 August just days after Federal Councillor Hans-Rudolf Merz, Minister of Finance (above left), announced he would leave his post in October.
Leuenberger, 63, a Socialist Party member, had originally announced that he would step down in December. The Minister had wanted to stay until the end of the year to see the completion of the digging of the Gotthard Tunnel and to attend the next UN climate change conference in Mexico. The exact date of departure will be announced next week during a cabinet meeting.
The cabinet elections by parliament will take place 22 September.
Moritz Leuenberger, Switzerland's Socialist minister for the environment, energy, transport, resigns
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch.com) – Moritz Leuenberger, Socialist Party member who has been one of Switzerland’s seven federal councillors for the past 15 years, announced Friday morning that he will step down at the end of 2010. Leuenberger, 63, from Zurich, has headed one department, the Detec (environment, transport and energy) during his tenure and his left-leaning views have had a significant impact on the country’s approach to climate change.
He insisted in a press conference that journalists should not seek to find tactical reasons, that after 15 years as part of the government, he feels the time has come to leave. Leuenberger was scheduled to be the next president, taking up the post that rotates among the federal councillors in January 2011. Micheline Calmy-Rey, also a Socialist, from Geneva, will now become president in 2011, for the second time.
Swiss Federal Council (cabinet), 2010
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Switzerland’s cabinet, the seven-member Swiss Federal Council, which governs as a body of equals, has published its official photo for 2010. Left to right: Didier Burkhalter, the chancellor for the Swiss Confederation Corina Casanova, Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf, Ueli Maurer, Micheline Calmy-Rey, Hans-Rudolf Merz, Swiss President Doris Leuthard, Vice-president Moritz Leuenberger. The presidency is a one-year rotating position, while the chancellor’s job is to oversee the smooth functioning of the administrative side of the government.
Doris Leuthard, Swiss president in 2010
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Doris Leuthard becomes president of Switzerland in 2010. The 46-year-old PDC (Christian Democrat) member was elected comfortably (153 of 187 votes) by parliament for the top job, a one-year post that is rotated among the seven cabinet members, the Swiss Federal Council. She is the only member of the council not to have yet held the post. She was in line for the job, as vice-president in 2009, but nevertheless needed the approval of the Federal Assembly, parliament’s two houses. Leuthard becomes the youngest president since 1934.
Leuthard is the third woman to serve as president of Switzerland: Ruth Dreifuss was the first, in 1999 and Micheline Calmy-Rey the second, in 2007.
State of national motorway network, 2009. Fedro
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – A new 2.8km stretch of the national motorway network south of Zurich has opened, filling a gap that connects northeastern Switzerland with Lucerne. Lucerne is now 35 minutes by road from Zurich on a good day. The federal roads office (Fedro) says the new road through the region of Knonau, southwest of Zurich, will lighten traffic on the cantonal and local roads in that area, and generally make traffic between northeastern Switzerland and the southern parts of the country easier.
But it will also have a negative impact on some parts of the autoroute, with the new connection likely to attract more traffic on Zurich’s northern A1 bypass which will only later be widened to six lanes, as well as on access roads to Lucerne.
Western bypass of Zurich, recently opened. Fedro
Road users get used to traffic
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Moritz Leuenberger wants to prepare the Swiss for paying more when they use transport – public or private. Mobility pricing is rearing its head. An audit of the current state of Switzerland’s infrastructure and a plan for its needs way into the future were the occasion to bring up the subject of costs and funding, in a report presented by the federal Department of the Environment, Transportation, Energy and Communications (Detec) 3 November.
Switzerland has an enviable infrastructural base, among the most advanced in the world, and a mainstay of its competitive economy. The country’s roads, rail system, electrical grid, gas and telecommunications networks contribute 6.5 percent to GDP , or CHF28 billion per year. All together infrastructure employs 198,000 people, or 6.1 percent of the working population.
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They said my baggage was in Athens...
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Geneva’s international airport has grown 40 percent. It showed off its new extensions 26 October. New areas for arrivals and baggage handling, a newly refurbished and centralized security process prior to departure, and more restaurants and shopping space will keep the airport competitive.
“The airport is the region’s economic lungs. Our prosperity and our status as an international city depend on its modernization, which has only just begun,” said François Longchamp, chairman of the airport’s board of directors.
