BERN - The Swiss People's Party will present at least two candidates to succeed Guy Parmelin in the Federal Council, faction president Thomas Aeschi said on Saturday. "I will work to ensure that there are at least two people on the ticket," he told Radio SRF's Saturday roundup, adding that he would not rule out three names. In December 2015, Parmelin prevailed over the Ticino state councillor Norman Gobbi and over Aeschi himself.
The final decision rests with the SVP faction, which fixes the size of the ticket and the names on it at its meeting on 20 November. Cantonal sections have until 23 October to put candidates forward. Parliament elects Parmelin's successor on 9 December. The economics minister and 2026 president announced his resignation at the start of October and leaves office on 31 December.
Friedli steps back
The field lost one of its most-mentioned names on Friday. Esther Friedli, the 49-year-old St. Gallen member of the Council of States, told the regional outlet Toggenburg 24 that she will not stand. She said she could not imagine giving up her work in the small chamber after only three and a half years, and that she wants to seek re-election there next year. Being discussed as a candidate was an honour, she added, but her place is in the Stöckli.
Friedli had headed the early lists together with Celine Amaudruz of Geneva and Zurich government councillor Natalie Rickli, as we reported when the race first took shape. Magdalena Martullo-Blocher, the most prominent name in the early speculation, ruled herself out on Wednesday. Amaudruz and Rickli now stand at the centre of the party's soundings, alongside Monika Ruegger of Obwalden, Marcel Dettling of Schwyz and the Vaud names Yvan Pahud and Nicolas Kolly.
Criteria, and a glance at the justice ministry
Aeschi, a Zug national councillor, set out the criteria the faction will weigh: command of the files, leadership qualities, the ability to push decisions through, and what he called the likeability factor. The requirement profile is very broad, he said, and the party will try to meet all of it.
Asked which department an SVP councillor should take, Aeschi said the party claims no specific portfolio and is open to every department. He then singled out the justice ministry led by SP councillor Beat Jans, saying it now needs someone who takes a firm grip. An SVP councillor could deliver the necessary change of course, he argued: "Then there will be a very different asylum policy in Switzerland."
The coming fortnight belongs to the cantonal sections. Whether the ticket keeps a Vaud seat in the Romandie, and whether it includes a woman, are the two questions party strategists expect to dominate the proposals that reach Bern by 23 October.