Switzerland: is parliament greener, more feminine and younger? 5 knowledge

One year after the historic elections: greener, more feminine, younger? 5 observations

There were big postponements in the 2019 elections. But how has Parliament changed? The balance of the editorial team at CH Media.

Sven Altermatt, Maja Briner, Lucien Fluri, Doris Kleck, Othmar von Matt

In the crisis, at most, a supporting actress

The newly formed parliament quickly had important issues on the agenda. Almost as soon, however, there was no longer any agenda. When the crisis of the crown reached a critical point, the parliament interrupted its session. The Federal Council decided only by emergency law. Parliament: frozen flash. It took time until it thawed and heated up again. Important concerns took longer. To be sure, there were trade agreements in which Parliament had to “set up the Federal Council.”

and compensation for business income or aid to sports leagues and those affected who did not participate in the Federal Council aid. There, the council chambers only came up with solutions that were necessary from the point of view of the people’s representatives.

During the crisis, parliament was a “supporting actress, if not a spectator” and did not fulfill its responsibility as a supreme power and as a control body of the Federal Council, criticized constitutional lawyer Andreas Glaser. Measures are now being debated. However, since May, the parliament has been active again.

First it met in large exhibition halls, then in a federal building with Plexiglas-walled barricades. The council chambers converted the Federal Council’s decisions into common law without almost any criticism. Parliament itself is now in the process of remedying the political shortcomings that became apparent during the crisis. He wants to play his role in the next crisis.

The dominance on the left is no longer so clear

By October 20, 2019, the SP had led the green field on the left with 54 seats. With their 13 seats, the Greens were considered junior partners. The green wave fundamentally shook these old certainties. The Greens group won 22 seats and now has 35 seats. It catapulted close to the SP, which lost six seats and now has 48 seats.

The relationship between the Greens and the SP changed markedly in terms of atmosphere. In committees and in public, the Greens seem more confident and at SP’s eye level. He is also emancipated in his political work. Until 2019, they often deliberately kept up their radical attempts and accepted failure. With its electoral success, the green parliamentary group adjusted its strategy. Look for majorities with more moderate advances. You want to bring your ideas to the goal and prove your suitability for the Federal Council.

However, the Greens also suffered setbacks. His claim for a seat on the Federal Council was not heard, at least not yet. Above all, the Greens have faced the climate strike movement. This contributed greatly to the success of the elections and has disappointingly turned away from institutional politics and thus also from the Greens. The relationship between the Greens and the SP has again relaxed after brief turbulence.

The president of the Greens, Balthasar Glättli, and the future co-heads of the SP, Mattea Meyer and Cédric Wermuth, spoke about cooperation and decided on a kind of non-aggression pact. The parties must talk about their own strengths, mutual attacks are taboo. This is how the SP and the Greens want to grow together.

When women tip a vote

After the proportion of women under the dome of the Bundestag building stagnated for a long time, it really soared in 2019. Thanks to the women’s strike and the “Helvetia Calls” campaign, many women made it to parliament. In the National Council, their participation increased from 32 to almost 42 percent. Since then, a good quarter of the Council of States has been female. This partly affects decisions: according to an RTS assessment, women voted differently from men by around ten percent of the votes and thus annulled the result.

This is what happened, for example, with the Civil Service Law or with individual decisions on the CO2 Law. Even with socially liberal issues like marriage for all, middle-class women tend to be more progressive than their male party partners. Parliament also put a clear emphasis in favor of equality when planning the legislature: it also requires a strategy for the compatibility of family and work, as well as a message on individual taxation.

Some parliamentarians say that the higher proportion of women has also improved the culture of discussion, for example, in committees. In the Council of States, however, dominated by older men for decades, tensions arose between young left-wing women and established councilors. By the way, MPs have recently had their own football team, FC Helvetia. Almost 50 years after the introduction of women’s suffrage, this men’s stronghold also fell.

Younger than ever, but the party comes first

The shock was almost spectacular for local political conditions: In 2019, Switzerland elected a parliament that was younger than ever. 36 of the newly elected were between 30 and 39 years old, seven even under 30 years old. There was even talk of a “demographic upheaval” (although the median age even in the youngest National Council is 49 years old). And soon there was even a crisp code for youthful freshness: “Polit-WG.” Young National Councilors Andri Silberschmidt (26, FDP), Franziska Ryser (29, Greens) and Mike Egger (28, SVP) founded a non-partisan residential community in Bern.

In terms of content, young parliamentarians tend to go in the same direction as their parliamentary groups; Ideological convictions divide more than age connects. But here and there they form a kind of “youth corrective”, especially when it comes to issues of digitization and social liberalization.

Young parliamentarians fought together from the left to the middle against the highest obstacles to community service. One should not rush to pit civil service against the military, warned Simon Stadler (32, CVP). In the beginning, Parliament had consistently supported tightening. In the final vote, however, the National Council surprisingly rejected the law. The representatives of the intermediate parties in particular were convinced by the arguments of the boys and changed their position.

Now the Council of States advances more conservatively

In the legislature from 2015 to 2019, the SVP and the FDP had a majority in the National Council. However, the Council of States was seen as more progressive, more solution-oriented. There, for example, commitments were forged to implement the SVP’s immigration initiative or the AHV tax bill. Some councilors of state were seen as shadow councils. Since the elections, the National Council and the Council of States have changed roles.

Cantonal representatives are suddenly seen as conservative brakes. So they pushed for a smaller counterproposal for the corporate responsibility initiative than the National Council wanted. They limited the bridging pension for unemployed seniors and the Council of States was less generous than its colleagues in the great chamber when it came to measures to mitigate the consequences of the corona pandemic.

This is astonishing in that the majority structure has not changed much since the last term. It is the people who make the difference. CVP still plays a key role. Conservative Valaisan Beat Rieder now sets the tone there; in the last legislature they were moderate builders of bridges like Konrad Graber or Filippo Lombardi. The CVP has recently become the majority creator in the Council of States and the National Council. But: Until now, she has not been able to use this position. The differences between their deputies in the two houses are too great.