Ueli Maurer has been elected has president this morning with 148 votes.

He deserves it. He is a much more able federal council than people make him.

By tomorrow, nobody will remember who the new president is.

And probably nobody even knows who the vice president is.

Tom

Probably true, Low Key that seem to be Swiss way & more decisions shared from all people

2013 should be an interesting year in our little CH

People will remember
- on New Year
- at the time of the WEF Davos
- whenever a foreign head of state or head of government arrives
- on 1st August

Vice President is Foreign Minister Didier Burkhalter. As Mr Maurer already in the past "gave" travel-assignments to Didier Burkhalter, the Vice President in future most likely will be "on the road" even more

Wasn't that just a formality since he was already veep?

Of course it is a formality. BUT the members of parliament use this procedure to show whether they are content with the person or not so much. The number of votes has been comfortably above the required minimum but fairly low. Ways from the more than 200 votes achieved years ago by Jean-Pascal Delamuraz ("father" of the Bilaterals).

AND it is fairly obvious that Mr Maurer does not particularily love that ceremonial role, as he is not a "showman"

Not always.

VP Ruth Metzler was voted out of the Federal Council rather than voted in as president.

Tom

I have it from people working in his department that he is not exactly considered an able leader, and that he quickly bows to pressure when others try and talk him into something.

Freddie Frinton comes to mind or "The same procedure as last year"

Ueli der Knecht has come a long way.

well, he's lost some hair.

Thanks goodness presidency is more a showing off and representation role than a true leadership in Switzerland...

Neither Mrs Metzler nor Mr Blocher lost an election to become President but both were voted out of the government. Mrs Metzler had the mis-fortune that her party had been continually shrinking and Mr Blocher had a good part of the members of parliament united against him.

She also had the misfortune of being out of touch, not being the brightest plum in the basket and having a terminally inflated ego.

At the time CVP even hired consultants to tell them what positions to take on different topics in order to maximise their support.

Talk about being a principled politician in a principled party.

She got what she deserved. In fact she got better than she deserved if you factor in the profits she made off her book in which she whined and sobbed how badly she's been treated.

No, but she was next in line to be president, but got voted out of government rather than becoming the president, the point being that the VP is not always the next president.

Tom

I hear that Ueli is more moderate the Christoph, is that true ?

Nice to see someone in position as President who came from humble beginnings.

I can believe that on the spot. He never was a leader but even as party-president a shrewd and tricky power-broker and behind-the-scenes tactician.

Mr Blocher over many years has been busy to keep potential leaders like Mr Spuhler and Mr Giezendanner away from power in his party and rather hired party-soldiers like Ueli Maurer and Tony Brunner into his closer circle.

She was one of the brightest "plums", well ahead of Mr Deiss, possibly to be compared with Mrs Leuthard. The problem for the CVP was double, first that they gradually lost support among Catholics in Catholic Cantons who no longer defined themselves via Catholicism, and second that it had become a staunchly conservative Catholic party with some social notions. And on the other side, the SVP was determined to get another seat in the Federal Council and to press Blocher into the seat of Mrs Metzler.

It is rumoured that they made a kind of package deal with Mr Deiss so that HE could continue. The CVP later on moved fairly modern, almost progressive Mrs Leuthard into the seat in question.

True, Mrs Metzler wrote a book and got some very nice positions in the economy and so made lots of money. While Switzerland got Mr Blocher

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Ueli Maurer is NOT more moderate in regard to political position but is a flexible personality, ready for talk and compromise.