Swiss politicians given report card

Bea Heim (left) and other women politicians had a lot to talk about Keystone Archive

Researchers have dissected the actions of Swiss parliamentarians over the past four years and come to conclusions that are often revealing and occasionally humorous.

Published in the Sunday newspaper, NZZ am Sonntag, the results show which parliamentarians submitted the most or fewest motions and which members were the most verbose.

The publication of the findings by Zurich University’s Sotomo research group came on the eve of the last legislative session before parliamentary elections in October.

It is the first time that such a detailed analysis has been made of the protocols of the sessions of parliament.

The researchers, led by Michael Hermann, assessed all motions, postulates and initiatives submitted by members of parliament or a political party.

The statistics revealed who was best – or worst – at toeing the party line, the person most often absent from a session and whether German or French speakers, women or men, were most likely to voice their opinion.

Using its own evaluation method, Sotomo found that the little known Social Democrat from canton Solothurn, Bea Heim, was the most successful, having submitted 30 motions and receiving 16 points from the research group for her success.

Heim won over both the House of Representatives – where she sits – and the Senate with various motions on health and education issues. In second place came the much more prolific politician and doctor, Felix Gutzwiller, who represents Zurich for the centre-right Radical Party.

Last place

However, Heim’s party colleague, Carlo Sommaruga from canton Geneva, tied for last, scoring no points despite submitting 21 motions.

Not surprisingly, representatives of the centrist parties topped the list of politicians who most often voted on the winning side with the majority of losers coming from the left and right fringes.

Also of use for Swiss voters is the analysis of which politicians follow the party line and which are not afraid to depart from it. In this case, another Social Democrat – Anita Thanei – was truer than all others with a 98.4 per cent rating.

Brigitta Gadient of the Swiss People’s Party was just the opposite, only agreeing with her party’s rightwing stance 70.2 per cent of the time.

Talkative

Member of the Greens, Anne-Catherine Menétrey-Savary, does not only have one of the longest names for a Swiss parliamentarian, but was also the politician who had the most to say.

The parliamentary service recorded that Menétrey-Savary used 118,295 words in her speeches to parliament. She was at the vanguard since French-speakers and women spoke the most often.

In fact, only three of the ten most talkative parliamentarians were Swiss Germans even though this language group accounts for nearly two thirds of the population.

Prominent businessman, Peter Spuhler, from German-speaking canton Thurgau was among the silent crowd, due in large part to his absenteeism.

The People’s Party member showed up for only half of the sessions.

swissinfo

Autumn session 2007

The three-week autumn session, which ends on October 5, is the last one of the current four-year term.



Elections to the House of Representatives and most seats in the Senate are scheduled for October 21.



The new parliament will elect the new cabinet in its first session in December.