No, the parliament has voted absolutely in favour of the concordance, because an additional SVP seat would have given the SVP/BDP section a 3 members representation which would NOT be in accordance with the strength of parties. That the BDP still is below 5% clearly shows which seat ought to go to a SVP member.

The SVP/BDP clientele is less than 30% and NOT 40% plus.

Now, let's be relaxed. The SVP is not the first party who got a NON-candidate voted into the Federal government by other parties. It happened three times to the SP (Tschudi / Stich / Dreyfuss) and to the FDP also. But those parties did NOT throw their members out of their parties, for the very simple reason that they knew that they were to lose a Bundesrat member. Mrs Widmer-Schlumpf may have been voted into office by others, but she IS a SVP Bundesrat arithmetically

It those to me

Well, the Romansch speakers, less than 3% of the population, are practically represented by the Grischun politican Widmer-Schlumpf !

The Canton of Ticino and the Cantons of Zug/Aargau/Luzern/Schwyz as well as the Citta di Lugano now are represented by her. She was born in Zug, grew up in Sins/AG (near Luzern) and got higher education in the Cantons of Luzern and Schwyz, studied in Rome and in California (presumably Berkeley)

I am sick about the constant moaning and whining of the SVP, which I never understood. As Wolli said, Mrs Widmer-Schlumpf was elected as a SVP member and kicked out of the party after accepting the vote. Therefore they blame the other parties for their own mistake. What a kindergarten!
But I think they will try to bring Blocher again. Simply for one reason: His "Überego" never acceptet this failure. Let's hope that the other cantonal parties can stop him. We often forget, that there are a lot of moderate people in the other cantons which don't agree with the Zurich wing. It's about thime the show their strength.

Switzerland's parliament has given women a majority of cabinet posts for the first time in the history. Switzerlands is known as of one of Europe's most conservative countries. It was the last European democracy to grant women the vote at national level in 1971 and the first female minister was only elected in 1984. The canton of Appenzell Inner-Rhodes, blocked women from local elections until 1990 .

But it is different in business: there are only five women in Swiss 100 top bankers.

Blocher is 310 years old, apparently.



The president of the national council, on the other hand...

I spotted the difference (or lack of), they both share the same bra size? Do I win an EF T-shirt? Large please, with cut outs for my physique..

Except his are....hairy. Urgh!!

Whats wrong with that,Leni ?

Erm......well, they are hairy and ..droopy, then.

Have you forgotten what happened?

To recap:
How Blocher was voted out of office

As much I loathe the SVP, but there was no way not to expell Widmer-Schlumpf.

Blocher apparently decided yesterday to encourage Mr Rime into a renewed candidacy in Dec-11, in order to evict Mrs Widmer-Schlumpf

A) I referred to the elections of yesterday, when SP and FDP kept their
two seats in accordance with the concordance. A 3rd seat for the rightwingers is NOT justified

B) When Widmer-Schlumpf was elected, a SVP member was elected to replace another SVP member. Nothing was done against the concordance

C) Widmer-Schlumpf was NOT (yet) expelled. This is most likely to happen in December 2011

It's a long time till December 11. His followers will certainly beg him to candidate for Bundesrat. After all, nobody could be possibly be better than BDB (big daddy Blocher)

She was expelled in 2008 from the SVP...


The FDP holds 47 seats in the federal assembly = received 2 seats in the executive.

The SVP holds 66 seats in the federal assembly = received 1 seat in the executive.

Concordance?

More accurately, the SVP received 2 seats in the executive, and expelled their executive member themselves afterwards, no? How is that the fault of parliament if the party takes unilateral action against one of its own? Do you then expect parliament to forget? Basically Parliament will think, we gave you 2 executive seats, you expelled one away, it's not a zero sum game where we then give you another and reward your petulance. I guess we can call it ABB, anyone but Blocher in the vein of Anyone But Hillary in the US for a while.

I think Wollishofener has mentioned this earlier.. The BDP may be too small to have a Bundesrat, but I see them as a party representing the right wing in this country. So in a bigger picture, an additional seat for the SVP at the cost of FDP or SP would give three seats to this "right block" (which has about the same size as SP+Green). This would not reflect the parliament either. Let's see what happens in 2011.

Blocher knows that HIS candidacy might re-unite the other political factions in Berne against him.

BDB has been a successful businessman long enough to know that you do not have to be at the desk where the decisions are signed, it is enough if you are at the desk where the decisions are MADE ! And as he already has with Mr Maurer one ally inside and with Mr Rime another one to be inside the coalition, he knows that he does and will have all the influence possible, while leaving the hard work to others.

Sure, as the SVP/BDP group of right-wingers has 2 seats in the Federal government. 25 plus 3 means 28 and not 40 ! Mrs Widmer-Schlumpf sits on a SVP seat, and is as far right as the SVP. FDP and CVP (plus allies) together have far more seats than SVP and BDP together, so that them having 3 seats is justified.

However, to have it the other way round, in 2011, FDP and SP risk to lose one of their two seats if they support Widmer-Schlumpf. They only can save themselves if they support Mr/Mrs SVP II .