Viola Amherd, current Minister of Defense, was elected Wednesday December 13 for one year as President of Switzerland by Parliament. This 61-year-old lawyer and notary began her political career in the 1990s in her canton, Valais, and is considered the best-working minister, according to a survey published this summer by Switzerland’s leading press group Tamedia.
Unknown to the general public before her arrival in government, in 2019 she inherited the Ministry of Defense, a position that she hardly coveted but from which she was able to gain the trust of the population and be appreciated by other parties. It has suffered some controversies, such as the choice of the American F35 fighter plane, to the great dismay of Paris, and “shows an ability to pass through the drops and land on its feet”, notes the daily Le Temps .
The presidential office is largely honorary, with collegiality and compromise being a marker of the Swiss federal government.
The only newcomer to the seven-member Federal Council is the socialist Beat Jans, 59, elected after three rounds of voting. Apprentice farmer, the elected representative of the canton of Basel-City on the border of France and Germany, then obtained a diploma in environmental sciences at the prestigious Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich.
He replaces socialist minister Alain Berset, who decided a few months ago not to run again, after leading the fight against the Covid-19 pandemic. All other Federal Councilors were reappointed. The seven will be able to choose their portfolio based on their seniority in government.
In Switzerland, the first four parties – UDC (Democratic Union of the Center, radical right), Socialist Party (PS), PLR (party of radical liberals), and Le Center – share the seven ministerial portfolios, according to the so-called system of “magic formula”: 2-2-2-1.