Final candidates for ministerial posts announced

Eva Herzog, (left), and Elisabeth Baume-Schneider, speaking at a media conference on Saturday. In the middle, party leader Roger Nordmann ©keystone/peter Schneider

All four candidates to succeed outgoing government ministers Simonetta Sommaruga and Ueli Mauer are now clear, after the Social Democratic Party nominated two women for Sommaruga’s job this Saturday.

Environment Minister Sommaruga and Finance Minister Maurer announced their retirement from the federal council (Swiss government) within a month of each other earlier this autumn.

Parliament will decide on December 7 who will take their places. Each of the ministers’ parties are allowed to put forward two candidates.

For the left-wing Social Democrats, this will be sitting parliamentarians Eva Herzog and Elisabeth Baume-Schneider, it was announced on Saturday. The party had previously said that it wanted two female candidates for Sommaruga’s job, a move that had caused controversy in some quarters.

Maurer’s party, the rightwing Swiss People’s Party, has already put forward its two nominees: former party president Albert Rösti and law professor and former parliamentarian Hans-Ueli Vogt.

Albert Rösti, (left), and Hans-Ueli Vogt © Keystone / Jean-christophe Bott

Comings and goings

Sommaruga, a minister since 2010, said on November 2 that she was stepping down from the Swiss government at the end of the year. She gave for family reasons for her decision, prompted by her husband’s recent stroke.

Maurer, who has been in cabinet a year longer than Sommaruga – making him the current longest serving member – made his announcement on September 30. He said after more than 40 years in politics, he was looking forward to a more “normal” life again.

The replacement of two of the seven government ministers is unlikely to lead a major shift in the multi-party arrangement in the Swiss government. Both the Social Democrats and the Swiss People’s Party currently hold two seats – with the remaining three seats occupied by centre-right and centrist parties.

But observers say the by-elections to the cabinet in December could have an impact on the general elections in October 2023.