Federal Assembly (Switzerland)

Federal Assembly

Coat of arms or logo
Type
Type
Houses Council of States
National Council
Leadership
President of the National Council
President of the Council of States
Structure
Seats 246
200 National Council
46 Council of States
National Council political groups

Government parties (169)

Opposition parties (31)

Council of States political groups

Government parties (43)

Opposition parties (3)

Elections
National Council last election
18 October 2015
Council of States last election
18 October, 15 and 22 November 2015
Meeting place
Federal Palace of Switzerland, Bern
Website
www.parliament.ch

The Federal Assembly (German: Bundesversammlung, French: Assemblée fédérale, Italian: Assemblea federale, Romansh: Assamblea federala), is Switzerland's federal legislature. It meets in Bern in the Federal Palace.

The Federal Assembly is bicameral, being composed of the 200-seat National Council and the 46-seat Council of States. The houses have identical powers. Members of both houses represent the cantons, but, whereas seats in the National Council are distributed in proportion to population, each canton has two seats in the Council of States, except the six 'half-cantons' which have one seat each. Both are elected in full once every four years, with the last election being held in 2015.

The Federal Assembly possesses the federal government's legislative power, along with the separate constitutional right of citizen's initiative. For a law to pass, it must be passed by both houses. The Federal Assembly may come together as a United Federal Assembly in certain circumstances such as to elect the Federal Council (collective executive head of government and state), the Federal Chancellor, the federal judges or a General (only in times of great national danger).

Composition

The Federal Assembly is made up of two chambers:

Seats in the National Council are allocated to the cantons proportionally, based on population. In the Council of States, every canton has two seats (except for the former "half-cantons", which have one seat each).

United Federal Assembly

On occasions the two houses sit jointly as the "United Federal Assembly" (German: Vereinigte Bundesversammlung, French: Assemblée fédérale, Chambres réunies, Italian: Assemblea federale plenaria, Romansh: Assamblea federala plenara). This is done to:

The United Federal Assembly is presided by the National Council's presidency.

The Federal Assembly also confirms the appointment of the Federal Data Protection and Information Commissioner (appointed by the Federal Council).[1]

Groups

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Parties can cooperate in groups, allowing smaller parties access to rights as part of a caucus. These groups must have at least five members and must be maintained across both chambers.[2] Being a member of a formal group gives members the right to sit on committees, and those that aren't members can't speak in most debates. Each group receives a fixed allowance of CHF112,000, whilst each member of a group also receives an additional CHF20,800 a year each.[2]

Since March 2009, there have been six groups in the Federal Assembly. The latest group to form was the Conservative Democratic Party which split off the Swiss People's Party in 2008. The Christian Democrats/EPP/glp Group (CEg) was formed after the 2007 elections, out of the former Christian Democratic (C) and EPP (E) groups. The current FTP/Liberal group (RL) was formed in 2003 out of the former FDP (R) and Liberal (L) groups; since the 2009 fusion of the Free Democrati and Liberal Parties, RL is once again a single-party group. In 2011, the CEg was disbanded, the Green Liberals formed their own faction (GL) and the three Christian parties formed the Christian-Evangelical Group (CE).

Currently (as of 2015), the seven factions are composed as follows:

Group Parties NC CS Total
People's Faction (V) Swiss People's Party 65 5 74
Ticino League 2 0
Geneva Citizens' Movement 1 0
Independent 0 1
Social Democrats Faction (S) Social Democratic Party 43 12 55
FDP.The Liberals Faction (RL) FDP.The Liberals 33 13 46
Christian-Evangelical Faction (CE) Christian Democratic People's Party 27 13 43
Evangelical People's Party 2 0
Christian Social Party 1 0
Green Faction (G) Green Party 11 1 13
Swiss Party of Labour 1 0
BDP Faction (BD) Conservative Democratic Party 7 1 8
Green Liberal Faction (GL) Green Liberal Party 7 0 7

See also

Notes and references

Bibliography

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