2022 Swiss Federal Council election

In Switzerland, the 7-seat executive Federal Council is elected by the Federal Assembly (both chambers of the legislature sitting together); in practice it is apportioned between the parties following the unwritten agreement known as the "magic formula". The formula was followed from 1959 to 2007, and again since 2015. Since 2016 the composition has been: SVP 2 seats, SP 2 seats, FDP 2 seats, and Die Mitte 1 seat.

Federal councillors are traditionally re-elected until they step down; only four ever lost re-election. Councillors tend to stand down during their term in order to ensure their party retains their seat and to allow their party to get more visibility at a moment other than shortly after a general election.^[2] These by-elections were held only ten months before the 2023 federal election.

On 30 September 2022, SVP councillor Ueli Maurer (elected to the council in 2008) announced he would resign effective 31 December, after serving for 13 years.^[3] On 2 November, SP councillor Simonetta Sommaruga (elected to the council in 2010) announced her departure as well after her husband suffered a stroke.^[4] Following the existing precedent, only SVP candidates stood for Maurer's seat and only SP candidates stood for Sommaruga's seat.

There was speculation about which departments of the Federal administration would be attributed to whom after the election. For the first time, Alain Berset (PS-FR) will rank highest in seniority after heading Home Affairs for ten years; the departments left open by the resignations of Maurer and Sommaruga were Finance and of Environment, Transport, Energy and Communications.^[5]

The seats are elected using an absolute majority with an exhaustive ballot, each seat being filled independently. In the first two rounds members of the Federal Assembly can vote for anyone eligible, but only those receiving at least ten votes are announced in the results; from the third round onwards only candidates who received at least ten votes in one of the first two rounds are eligible, the last-placed candidate is eliminated until someone reaches an overall majority.^[6]

After the elections, the Council meets to attribute the departments of the Federal administration to each councillor. The departments are attributed by a council decision; in practice, each member announces their preference in order of seniority leaving the newly-elected members last, and the council adopts their preferences. In 2018, as Viola Amherd and Karin Keller-Sutter were elected on the same day, the council chose to let Keller-Sutter choose earlier despite having been elected slightly later.^[5]

The vacancy opened the question of whether the SVP would field a woman on their ticket for the first time (Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf had been elected in 2007 but was not the party's official candidate). One of the anticipated potential candidates, Magdalena Martullo-Blocher (daughter of Christoph Blocher) announced on the same day she would not run.^[3]

The Green Party envisioned standing a candidate as well, citing their absence from the magic formula despite their popular support and the SVP's "flouting of collegiality" in the Council, but ultimately did not run.^[3]

The SVP selected two candidates, both from German Switzerland and from the two most-populated cantons:^[3]

• Albert Rösti (SVP-BE), National councillor for Bern (2011–) and former president of the Swiss People's Party (2016–2020)
• Hans-Ueli Vogt (SVP-ZH), Former national councillor for Zürich (2015–2021)

Both candidates were interviewed by the other parties; the green liberals emphasized the question of collegiality while both the FDP and the Greens left it as an open vote for their members.^[7] Rösti won the support of the important peasant group in the parliament, is seen as a more traditional candidate for the party and was its president for five years, and is also well-known as a lobbyist, especially in oil as he was president of Swissoil a few months before the election.^[8][9] Vogt distinguished himself on being a more urban figure and surprising candidate for the SVP while being more independent from lobbies, hard-line on national sovereignty, and if elected would have been the first openly homosexual member of the Federal Council.^[10] No party endorsed either candidate, leaving it a free vote for their members.^[9][11]

States Councillor for Bern Werner Salzmann declared his candidacy but was ultimately not nominated by the SVP party after being narrowly defeated by Vogt.^[12]

The SP fielded two candidates, both women in the Council of States who had long experience with the executive in their respective cantons:^[4]

• Élisabeth Baume-Schneider (SP-JU), States Councillor for Jura (2015–) and former Jura executive councillor (2003–2015)
• Eva Herzog (SP-BS), States Councillor for Basel-Stadt (2019–) and former Basel-Stadt executive councillor (2005–2020)

A third person received nearly sixty first-round votes despite not being nominated as candidate:

• Daniel Jositsch (SP-ZH), States Councillor for Zürich (2015–) and former National councillor for Zürich (2007–2015)

Herzog was initially seen as front-runner due to her previous experience in managing her canton's finances,^[13][14] as well as having already been candidate for the Council in the 2010 election (losing to Sommaruga) She had also been re-elected by wide margins several times in her canton, which was historically under-represented compared to the others. She also benefited from being German, as Baume-Schneider's election would put the German speakers in minority in the Council, and quickly gained support from the FDP for this reason as well as being from the more liberal wing of the social-democrats.^[7] The Green-liberal party endorsed her citing her economic management and her positions on the EU, but all other parties left it an open vote for their members.^[9][15]

Baume-Schneider represented a more left-wing side of the social-democrats, but she gained support within the other "bourgeois parties" (SVP and Die Mitte) after her interview by the important peasant group in the parliament and from her rural background; she also benefited from a warmer image compared to "glacial" Herzog.^[7] Despite being from a French-speaking canton and her election risking disturbing the language balance in the Council, her candidacy benefited from her knowledge of Swiss German and the fact she would be the first federal councillor from Jura (the youngest canton, created in 1979).^[9][16]

Baume-Schneider and Herzog were both narrowly selected over Bern executive councillor Evi Allemann;^[17] State councillor for Zürich Daniel Jositsch, despite not being nominated, received nearly sixty votes in protest due to the all-women ticket presented by the SP.^[14] The candidacy of Jositsch became an issue as the SP presidency preferred an all women ticket as a man of the SP already sits in the Federal Council and the SP considers itself as the party of gender equality.^[18] The national councilor Franziska Roth of Solothurn argued that all politicians were allowed to present themselves as candidates in a democratic party, while Hans Stöckli, a fellow MP of Jositsch from Zürich deemed it clear that a second seat for the SP should be reserved for a woman.^[18]

Albert Rösti was elected to the Federal Council in the first round, with a thirty-three-vote margin over Hans-Ueli Vogt, this marked the first time since 1979 that an SVP candidate was elected in the first round.^[16][19]

Élisabeth Baume-Schneider was elected, narrowly defeating Eva Herzog in the third round by reaching the overall majority. Daniel Jositsch received nearly sixty votes in the first, speculated to be from right-wing legislators in protest for the SP's all-female ticket.^[1]

She received the fewest votes for the election of an SP councillor since 1943; after Jositsch's strong showing in the first round, social-democrats leader Roger Nordmann emphasized in a parliamentary speech the historical and current gender imbalance in the federal council, calling again to vote for one of the two nominated candidates.^[19]