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Fewer parliamentarians announced their resignation following the October national elections than before the 2019 elections.
Around ten months before the national elections, it is becoming apparent that fewer council members no longer want to stand as candidates in autumn than in 2019. Less than 30 members of parliament have announced their withdrawal.
So far, four of the five factions in the small chamber have been affected by the resignations from the Council of States. After 2019, the SP is once again facing a downturn in terms of the number of seats.
Senior is gone
Until the resignation of Paul Rechsteiner (70, SG) at the end of the winter session, the SP had eight representatives in the Council of States. The party has to defend Rechsteiner’s seat in March. The St. Gallen sat since 1986 in the National Council. He was then elected to the Council of States in 2011. He was the longest-serving MP.
Two other representatives of the Social Democrats want to leave at the end of the legislature: Hans Stöckli (70, BE) and Roberto Zanetti (68, SO).
And there is still a fourth exit from the SP parliamentary group in the room. Marina Carobbio Guscetti (56) from Ticino is running for a seat in the cantonal government in April. In 2019 she was able to take the seat from the center politician Filippo Lombardi (66).
Servant and Kuprecht
The SVP also has to cope with a proportionately large number of departures. Two members of their delegation of six – Hansjörg Knecht (62, AG) and Alex Kuprecht (65, SZ) – do not want to stand for re-election in October. Knecht took a seat from the SP four years ago.
Three of the twelve members of the Council of States want to leave the FDP: Olivier Français (67, VD), Thomas Hefti (63, GL) and Ruedi Noser (61, ZH) have announced their resignations. Nidwaldner Freisinner Hans Wicki (58) is still keeping a low profile when it comes to further terms of office, and Philippe Bauer (60, NE) has not yet made any announcement either.
Ex-President says goodbye
Of the five Greens, only the former co-party president Adèle Thorens Goumaz (51, VD) no longer wants to attach a term of office. So far, no announcement of resignation has come from the 14-strong and largest fraction of the small chamber, the center. However, Peter Hegglin (62) from Zug has not yet announced his plans.
So far, only Vaud has had to choose a completely new professional representation due to resignations. One member of the Council of States wants to go in each of the cantons of Aargau, Bern, Glarus, Solothurn, Schwyz and Zurich.
This means that the wave of renewals in the small chamber in autumn 2019 should be followed by a smaller one next autumn. In 2019, no less than 19 of the 46 members of the Council of States had not stood and three others did not make it to re-election.
At the beginning of the 51st legislature, the then President of the Council, Hans Stöckli, said there had never been so many new members at once in the small chamber. The small chamber had become greener, younger and more feminine.
Bernese have to go
The situation in the National Council is even less clear, and a number of cards are still hidden. So far, 21 resignation announcements have come from the SVP, SP, Mitte and FDP parliamentary groups, but none from the Greens and the GLP. In 2019 you won the “Climate and Women’s Choice”. Accordingly, many of their representatives have only been in office for a short time.
Of the 55 SVP representatives in the large chamber, eight no longer want to compete. The Bernese Andreas Aebi (64), Andrea Geissbühler (46) and Erich von Siebenthal (64) have to vacate their seats because of the internal party term limit. Yves Nidegger (65, GE), Walter Wobmann (65, SO), Pirmin Schwander (61, SZ), Verena Herzog (66, TG) and Jean-Pierre Grin (75, VD) also want to leave. However, Schwander wants to run for the Council of States.
Markwalder and Fiala
There are five departures among the 29 FDP National Council members. Christa Markwalder (47, BE), Jacques Bourgeois (64, FR), Christian Lüscher (59, GE), Kurt Fluri (67, SO) and Doris Fiala (65, ZH) no longer want to run for office.
So far, four departures are known from the 39-strong SP faction. They are Yvonne Feri (56, AG), Prisca Birrer-Heimo (63, LU), Edith Graf-Litscher (58, TG) and Ada Marra (49, VD).
Four departures have also been reported from the center – the parliamentary group has 31 members. Martin Landolt (54, GL), Jean-Paul Gwind (70, JU), Ida Glanzmann (64, LU) and Alois Gmür (67, SZ) want to go to the end of the legislature. Ruth Humbel (65, AG) will resign early at the end of February.
The National Council was rejuvenated four years ago in the fall: 29 members no longer stood as candidates and 31 others were not re-elected. In the three previous elections, around two dozen members of the National Council had not been re-elected. (SDA)