Newly-elected cabinet minister Didier Burkhalter will take over the interior ministry from his predecessor, Pascal Couchepin.
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The other six ministers will keep their existing portfolios, the Federal Chancellery said in a statement on Friday.
The announcement ends speculation over whether the 49-year-old centre-right Radical would take the place of Foreign Minister Micheline Calmy-Rey.
Switzerland’s parliamentarians voted Burkhalter into the cabinet on Wednesday who will officially take office on November 1.
Burkhalter will be in charge of a cash-strapped social security system and will have to tackle rising healthcare costs.
His ministry also includes culture, research and education.
A switching of portfolios is relatively rare. It last occurred in 2002 after the election of Calmy-Rey, when Couchepin exchanged his economics portfolio for the interior ministry. Calmy-Rey took over the foreign ministry from Joseph Deiss.
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New cabinet member has “politics in his blood”
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Burkhalter was voted into cabinet in an election on Wednesday to replace fellow centre-right Radical Party member Pascal Couchepin, who steps down on October 30. At 49 Burkhalter is the second youngest in the seven-member body, and brings to the table strong free-market views and nearly two decades of political experience. He has a “vocation…
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The embattled centre-right Radical in the end succeeded comfortably in fending off a challenge by the rival Christian Democrats for a second seat in the seven-member government. It took four rounds of voting in a joint session of the House of Representatives and the Senate before the senator from the French-speaking canton of Neuchâtel won…
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The 49-year-old from canton Neuchâtel was elected with 129 votes in the fourth round of voting in parliament. His win enables the centre-right Radical Party to retain its two seats in the seven-member cabinet. Urs Schwaller of the centre-right Christian Democrats came second with 106 votes.
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If you want to start a conversation about a topic raised in this article or want to report factual errors, email us at english@swissinfo.ch.