| Federal Assembly of Switzerland German: Bundesversammlung French: Assemblée fédérale Italian: Assemblea federale Romansh: Assamblea federala |
|
|---|---|
| Type | |
| Type | Bicameral |
| Houses | Council of States National Council |
| Leadership | |
| President of the National Council | Pascale Bruderer, Social Democratic Party |
| President of the Council of States | Erika Forster-Vannini, FDP.The Liberals |
| Structure | |
| Members | 246 200 National Council 46 Council of States |
| National Council Political groups | SVP, et al (60) SP (42) CVP/EPP/glp (36) FDP (35) Green, et al (20) BDP (5) |
| Council of States Political groups | CVP/EPP/glp (16), FDP (12), SP (9), SVP (6), Green (2), BDP (1) |
| Elections | |
| 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 parliament. 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 2007.
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, including to elect the Federal Council, the Federal Chancellor, a General (Swiss generals are only selected in times of great national danger), or federal judges.
Contents |
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).
On occasions the two houses sit jointly as the "United Federal Assembly" (German: Vereinigte Bundesversammlung, French: Assemblée fédérale, Chambres réunies, Italian: Assemblea federale plenaria). This is done to:
| Switzerland |
This article is part of the series: |
|
|
|
Federal Assembly
Subdivisions
|
|
Other countries · Atlas |
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.[1] 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 €112,000, whilst each member of a group also receives an additional €20,800 a year each.[1]
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 Deocratic (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.
Currently (as of 2010), the six factions are composed as follows.
| Group | Parties | NC | CS | Total | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Swiss People's Party (V) | Swiss People's Party | 58 | 6 | 66 | |
| Ticino League | 1 | 0 | |||
| Federal Democratic Union | 1 | 0 | |||
| Christian Democrats/EPP/glp Group (CEg) | Christian Democratic People's Party | 31 | 14 | 52 | |
| Evangelical People's Party | 2 | 0 | |||
| Green Liberal Party (G) | 3 | 2 | |||
| Social Democrats (S) | Social Democratic Party | 42 | 9 | 51 | |
| Parliamentary Group FDP.The Liberals (RL) | FDP.The Liberals | 35 | 12 | 47 | |
| Green Faction (G) | Green Party | 20 | 2 | 24 | |
| Christian Social Party | 1 | 0 | |||
| Swiss Party of Labour | 1 | 0 | |||
| BDP Faction | Conservative Democratic Party (BD) | 5 | 1 | 6 | |