2022 Swiss Federal Council election

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 precidency 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]

2022 Swiss presidential election

7 December 2022

Candidate Alain Berset Party Social Democrats Electoral vote 140 / 181

President before election Ignazio Cassis Elected President Alain Berset

The President of the Confederation is a member of the Federal Council elected every year, with no additional powers apart from chairing meetings of the Federal Council. Alain Berset (SP-FR) was supported by all groups, as he had served the longest on the Federal Council since being last president in 2018 and was vice-president the previous year; he however only received 140 votes which is the lowest for an elected president since 2011 and fifty fewer votes than his previous selection in 2017.[19][21][22]

The Vice President of the Federal Council is a member of the Federal Council elected every year like the President, and the presumptive president for the next year. Viola Amherd (DM-VS) was supported by all groups, as she had served the longest on the Federal Council since her election in 2017 without being president.[19]

Martin Candinas (DM-GR) was comfortably elected as president of the National Council for the year, succeeding Irène Kälin.[23] He is one of only three Romansh-speaking members of the federal assembly, and later presided over the election of the two federal councillors in Romansh, to highlight Swiss tetra-lingualism.

Brigitte Häberli-Koller (DM-TG) was near-unanimously elected as president of the Council of States for the year, succeeding to Thomas Hefti.[24]

The federal departments were attributed on 8 December. The four most senior councillors retained their respective departments: Alain Berset the Home Affairs, Guy Parmelin the Economic Affairs, Education and Research, Ignazio Cassis the Foreign Affairs, and Viola Amherd the Defence, Civil Protection and Sport; Karin Keller-Sutter picked Maurer's former Federal Department of Finance, leaving the Justice and Police she had since 2018 to Élisabeth Baume-Schneider; Albert Rösti took the Environment, Transport, Energy and Communications left by Sommaruga. Cassis described the sharing as "consensual", while the greens criticized Rösti's new position as head of the environment despite his position as former president of Swiss Oil.[26]