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Albert Rösti has a good laugh: The Bernese SVP National Council could be elected to the Federal Council in the first ballot.
«Where is Hans-Ueli Vogt?» Anyone who attended the celebration for National Council President Martin Candinas (42) on Wednesday heard this question again and again. Because while SVP Federal Council candidate Vogt (52) was absent because he was not invited, competitor Albert Rösti (55) used the trip from Bern to Graubünden and back for the election campaign.
Here a conversation with a member of the Council of States, there a chat with a member of the National Council. There a mischievous saying by a middle representative, there teasers in a green squad. “He sat down with us and debated with us,” says a Green National Councilor to Blick. “He’s done well.”
Rösti could make it in the first ballot
The advertising pays off: Rösti could make it on Wednesday in the first ballot. And clearly, with 130 or even 140 voices, one hears. Which would not be a top result, but still respectable.
Who is running? Claude Longchamp on the Federal Council elections(21:46)
Panic attacks from young leftists who fear a Federal Councilor rösti in the environment and energy department like the devil fears holy water and therefore want to prevent it at all costs are only wearily smiled at by old parliamentary hands: the SVP race is over.
Scarce, scarce, SP
The duel for the successor to Simonetta Sommaruga (62, SP) promises to be much more exciting. The party strategists’ tally lists show that it’s tight, very tight. They predict a second, possibly even a third ballot, which will be decided with a few votes difference.
For whose benefit? Not even old hands dare to bet on that anymore. “Eva Herzog probably still has a slight advantage.” But the 60-year-old Basel Councilor has clearly lost ground. There is increasing nervousness in the Herzog camp. “Last week I thought Eva’s election was a clear thing,” said a national councillor. “Now I’m not so sure.”
Baume-Schneider scores with Welschen and in the countryside
Your Jura competitor Elisabeth Baume-Schneider (58) not only enchanted the farmers in Parliament. No, she also collects votes elsewhere. In the case of representatives of peripheral regions, for example, who see rural concerns better represented by the Jura: Half of the rural middle group is likely to rely on EBS, as Baume-Schneider is called.
Political chief Sermîn Faki: These are the favorites for the Federal Council election(02:10)
It could be the other way around with Greens and GLP. Their parliamentarians tend to come from cities and are more likely to identify with the urban duke. Herzog is also likely to be ahead of the FDP and the economic wing of the SVP, because she is considered to be someone who knows that prosperity also requires flourishing companies.
However: Just over a third of the liberals come from Latin Switzerland. “And they stick together like bad luck and brimstone,” says a Swiss-German. And in the SP? The votes should split fifty-fifty.
Herzog has 123 votes – that’s only half
Herzog’s hopes therefore rest on Rösti: If this is chosen, the hurdles for EBS are higher. Many city dwellers in the Federal Palace do not want all seven Federal Councilors to come from rural regions.
The bean counters in the Federal Palace still shake their heads: According to their lists of votes, Herzog has at best 123 votes, half of all national and state councils. Is that enough?