Council of the Swiss Abroad: will direct elections bring fresh blood?

The direct elections of delegates to the Council of the Swiss Abroad have been concluded. OSA, SwissCommunity / Nicolas Brodard

For the first time the Council of the Swiss Abroad is being elected by a direct vote. Over 13,000 ballots have been cast worldwide. The high rate of participation has raised hopes of a new dynamism in the Council, but younger people who are elected may find it hard to stay committed to the Council for the full term.

On May 11, polls closed for the largest organised direct elections in the history of the Council of the Swiss Abroad. The operation was a success: 13,473 votes were cast in the 13 constituencies. In Germany alone, 4,416 Swiss Abroad voted for their eight delegates and two deputies for the next term of office on the Council.

As a comparison, under the indirect voting system in 2021 in Germany, 32 representatives of the 40 Swiss associations entitled to vote chose councillors. At that time 23 candidates were standing for election, as opposed to 28 this time. “The more than 4,000 voters make a real difference,” said Tobias Orth, vice-president of the Swiss Abroad organisation in Germany.

Who is elected will be announced in the next few days. The results from GermanyExternal link and Spain and PortugalExternal link have already been communicated. The Bern University of Applied Sciences, which provided the tool for these direct elections, “has already forwarded the results to the Organisation of the Swiss Abroad,” said Noel Frei, who headed a working group to manage these elections.

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Real choice in almost every country

Thanks to a cooperative effort with the foreign ministry, they were able to contact all the Swiss Abroad entitled to vote, Frei explained. With 150 candidates standing for 47 delegate slots, there was a real choice available in almost every country.

“Here, as in the rate of participation, I see a real opportunity to get more out of the electoral process,” Frei said.

What does the Council of the Swiss Abroad do?

The Council of the Swiss Abroad is the political discussion and decision-making body of the Organisation of the Swiss Abroad (OSA).

It consists of 120 delegates elected by Swiss citizens resident in other countries around the world plus 20 members from within Switzerland, drawn from political, economic and cultural life.

The Council of the Swiss Abroad represents the interests of Swiss citizens resident in other countries. It is the political voice of the community with which it can address the Swiss government, institutions and the public at large.

Its main advocacy is for the preservation of voting rights, better consular services, involvement in Swiss social and political debates, as well as the overall cultural connection with Switzerland. 

This direct vote took place to elect a new slate of representatives to the Council of the Swiss Abroad for the 2025-2029 term of office. A total of 140 seats were to be filled, 120 of them with representatives chosen by the Swiss Abroad. Of these, 47 were chosen by means of an electronic direct vote. The remaining seats were to be filled under the previous system, elected by Swiss associations in the different countries.

The new head of the Organisation of the Swiss Abroad (OSA), Lukas Weber, sees in these direct elections “a clear sign of lively and future-oriented participation” among the Swiss Abroad. In comparison with earlier methods, they represent an important step in the direction of making the Council of the Swiss Abroad more truly democratic and representative, he said.

Attrition of younger delegates

As reported by OSA, the average age of delegates on the Council of the Swiss Abroad in the last term of office was 61. The figure for the 2021-2025 term was actually slightly lower than previously. Many younger and very committed delegates appeared at the beginning of the term, who tried to introduce and develop new projects.

Some of these formed the working group which came up with the idea of direct elections to the Council. They advocated for this change throughout the four-year term, sometimes against resistance from within.

JNow, at the end of the Council term, only two out of five members of the steering committee of this working group will be staying on. One has been officially declared elected – by an indirect election method in France. The other was just re-elected in Germany.

The other three did not stand for re-election. They belong to the large number of delegates who did not stand again for the coming term.

Younger delegates often have a simple reason for serving just one term on the Council. Many Swiss who go to live abroad now do so only for a few years, not for good. After a period of residence studying or working in another country, they return to live in Switzerland.

SWI swissinfo.ch knows of several Swiss Abroad councillors from various parts of the world who have returned home in the course of the past Council term. Among them are Yvonne Diffenhard from Germany and Andreas Feller-Ryf from Britain.

Noel Frei, Andreas Feller-Ryf, Antoine Belaieff and Monique Heymann (from left to right) were the driving forces behind the implementation of the direct elections. OSA/Nicolas Brodard

Off-putting travel costs

There are other reasons why the younger generation of Swiss Abroad councillors may not stand for re-election. Talking to former delegates, we found two major difficulties being mentioned: the great effort required to get changes implemented, and the travel.

Delegates have to pay for their own travel to Bern to attend meetings. There is very little in the way of expenses reimbursed. “If you can’t combine a trip to Switzerland with something work-related, it can get very expensive,” said one Council member.

Flights from places such as South America and Australia are expensive, which might be one reason why it’s mostly just older Swiss Abroad who can afford to take up a position on the Council, another delegate told us.

The OSA is aware of the financial burden involved in travelling to attend meetings. “Due to the current budget situation, only a partial reimbursement of expenses can be offered by the OSA,” Weber confirms.

In recent years the cost of travel has become less of a problem with increasing online communication. At two of the three Council meetings that take place in Bern each year, delegates can now participate and vote online. The last meeting in the year is online only. “It now works out that you only have to attend one meeting per year, and that can often be combined with personal or work-related travel,” Weber points out.

No-shows late in the term

Neverthless, there are challenges to online communication. Time-zone differences are one. For delegates in the US and Canada, the all-day online meetings sometimes begin at 4am. This is hard to combine with work and family life.

Yet there are council members who “have seen important issues through”, for example the delegate from Canada Antoine Belaieff. In the past four years not only has he campaigned for direct elections, but also for Swiss Abroad participation in parliamentary elections in Switzerland. “This project is not finished yet, but it’s time that new people became involved,” says Belaieff.

An unofficial list of attendees, which SWI swissinfo.ch got an exclusive look at, shows that there were 127 participants at the first meeting of the 2021-2025 term, but the number of delegates attending all through that four-year term dropped to 69. Enthusiasm obviously waned for delegates in the course of their term of office. The OSA considers this a “matter to be taken seriously” and intends to analyse it in the coming Council term.

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Edited by Balz Rigendinger. Adapted from German by Terence MacNamee/ts