President of the Swiss Confederation
The
President of the Confederation (Italian:
Presidente della Confederazione, French:
Président de la Confédération, German:
Bundespräsident) is the presiding member of the
Swiss Federal Council,
Switzerland's seven-member
executive. Elected by the
Federal Assembly for one year, the
President of the Confederation chairs the meetings of the Federal Council and undertakes special representational duties.
Primus inter pares, the President has no powers above the other Councillors and continues to head his
department. Traditionally the duty rotates among the members in order of seniority and the previous year's Vice President becomes President.
The Swiss President is not - as are for example the Presidents in
Austria or
Germany - the
Head of State of the country. The
Swiss Federal Constitution knows neither a Head of State nor a Head of Government. All of these functions are administered by the Federal Council collectively. If a tie vote occurs in this council, the President, as Chair of the Federal Council, casts the deciding vote.
In addition to the control of their own Department, the President carries out some of the representative duties of a Head of State. At first this was only the case inside Switzerland: The President holds speeches on the New Year and the Swiss National Holiday (1st August). More recently, added foreign visits means that the President travels abroad often as well.
However, because the Swiss have no single Head of State, the country also carries out no state visits. When traveling abroad, the President does so only as an ordinary Minister of a government Department.
Visiting heads of state are received by the seven members of the Federal Council together, rather than the President of the Confederation.
The President is elected by the Federal Assembly from the Federal Council in each case for one year.
In the 19th century, the election of the Federal President was an award for especially esteemed Federal Council members. However, a few influential members of the government were regularly passed over. One such example was St. Galler Wilhelm Matthias Naeff, who belonged to the government for twenty-seven years, but was federal president only once in 1853.
Since the twentieth century, the election has usually not been disputed. There is an unwritten rule that the member of the Federal Council who has not been Federal President the longest becomes president. Therefore every Federal Council member gets a turn at least once every seven years.The only question in the elections that provides some tension is the question of how many votes the person who is to be elected president receives. This is seen as a test of their popularity. In the 1970s and 1980s, 200 votes (of 246 possible) was seen as an excellent result. However, in the current era of growing party-political conflicts, 180 votes are already considered a respectable outcome.
Until 1920 it was usually customary for the serving federal president to also take over the Foreign Ministry. Therefore every year there was a moving around of posts, as the retiring president moved back to his old department and the new president moved into the foreign ministry.Likewise, it was traditional for the federal president, even as foreign minister, not to leave Switzerland during his year in office.
The
2006 President of the Confederation is
Moritz Leuenberger.
Micheline Calmy-Rey was elected vice-president, and she is expected to be elected President of the Confederation for
2007.
*
List of Presidents of the Swiss Confederation*
President of the Swiss Confederation 2006 -- official site.
