European Tribune - Community, Politics & Progress.

Yipeee!!!! Swiss Bundesrat Blocher ousted!

by Fran
Wed Dec 12th, 2007 at 10:25:06 AM EST

Bundesrat Blocher has not been reelected as justice minister today. And extra sweet - he has been replaced by a woman. If this isn't Karma. :-) I was hoping for this, but did not dare to really dream about it.

Following discussions over the next days will be interesting. Despite his party being one of the winners of the last elections, it seems he has been stepping on to many toes to get reelected.

Blocher was one of the initiators of the black sheep add, we have discussed here on ET.

To get elected 4 years ago he ellbowed a woman out of the cabinet. Swiss women were very angry at that time and I am sure many rejoice today as I do. This also means that the Bundesrat has now 3 women and 4 men, worthy another yipeee! :-) This is the highest number of women we had in the Bundesrat so far.

Blocher ousted by Swiss parliament. - swissinfo

The Swiss are awaiting the next move in a tense game of political poker after rightwing Justice Minister Christoph Blocher lost his seat in cabinet.
On Wednesday parliament showed its dissatisfaction with the controversial Blocher when it failed to re-elect him, voting instead for his People's Party colleague Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf. Widmer-Schlumpf will make her intentions known on Thursday.
The joint session of the House of Representatives and the Senate, which met on Wednesday, had been expected to confirm the seven members of the cabinet unchanged for the next four-year term.
The first four ministers were elected without incident but when it came to Blocher, the house was split. Blocher secured 111 votes, while 116 parliamentarians voted for wildcard candidate Widmer-Schlumpf. The majority was 120.
In a second round Widmer-Schlumpf garnered 125 votes out a possible 242, defeating the justice minister. The canton Graubünden finance head will respond to her nomination on Thursday.

BBC NEWS | Europe | Swiss MPs reject far-right leader

Swiss parliamentarians have forced far-right politician Christoph Blocher from his cabinet seat, despite his party's record success in recent polls.
MPs voted against keeping Mr Blocher, a leader of the nationalist Swiss People's Party (SVP), in the cabinet.
The SVP won 29% of the vote in October elections - the highest share ever polled by a single party, though not enough to form its own government.
The SVP's election campaign was criticised as racist by the UN.
The run-up to the polls also saw rioting in the city of Bern, when left-wing and anarchist groups tried to disrupt an SVP rally.

After this I really am starting to believe in Karma. :-)

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Yipeee!!!! Swiss Bundesrat Blocher ousted! | 14 comments (14 topical, 0 editorial, 0 hidden)

Re: Yipeee!!!! Swiss Bundesrat Blocher ousted! (4.00 / 7)

I have not yet been able to find a link for information on our new Bundesrätin in English. As soon as it is available, I'll post it.

by Fran (fran at eurotrib dot com) on Wed Dec 12th, 2007 at 10:29:58 AM EST

Re: Yipeee!!!! Swiss Bundesrat Blocher ousted! (4.00 / 3)

Great news and also great to see a FP story from you Fran! Really good to see some advance for women in senior positions. It's desperately needed.

Ad astra per aspera

by In Wales (inwales aaat eurotrib.com) on Wed Dec 12th, 2007 at 10:32:29 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Yipeee!!!! Swiss Bundesrat Blocher ousted! (none / 1)

Thanks, In Wales. I am really excited - after the last election I was disappointed and now this and so unexpected. :-)

by Fran (fran at eurotrib dot com) on Wed Dec 12th, 2007 at 10:37:39 AM EST
[ Parent ]

For Turambar! (4.00 / 3)

Turambar:

Wow, she's really called Schlumpf. I thought you were joking.

Don't you know: Schlümpfe sind gut für uns.:-) We already had a Schlumpf as Bundesrat, her father Leon.

by Fran (fran at eurotrib dot com) on Wed Dec 12th, 2007 at 10:47:34 AM EST

For the Swiss (4.00 / 5)

It seems that Evelyn Widmer-Schlumpf has not yet accepted her position as Bundesrätin. I just received a link to a website were signatures are being collected to motivate her to accept.

http://www.mitsprache.ch/index.php?guestbookentry=461

by Fran (fran at eurotrib dot com) on Wed Dec 12th, 2007 at 10:56:52 AM EST

Re: For the Swiss (4.00 / 3)

I hope she will accept. But SVP had made it clear, that anyone replacing or supporting its offical candidats(i.e Blocher or Schmidt) is a traitor.

by Hansvon on Wed Dec 12th, 2007 at 12:01:31 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: For the Swiss (4.00 / 2)

aehummmm.

5 12.12.2007 18:07
Peter Winter, Aeschi ob Spiez

by PeWi on Wed Dec 12th, 2007 at 12:08:23 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: For the Swiss (4.00 / 3)

If your dream come true place of living is where you spend fantastic holidays during your childhood - and we all live in a dream anyway. That's were I live...

by PeWi on Wed Dec 12th, 2007 at 12:10:28 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Yipeee!!!! Swiss Bundesrat Blocher ousted! (none / 1)

Congratulations, Fran, Switzerland, Europe.... I hope she is better than that racist, even if she´s right winged. Do you have any background on her?

Our knowledge has surpassed our wisdom. --Charu Saxena.

by metavision on Wed Dec 12th, 2007 at 01:34:55 PM EST

Re: Yipeee!!!! Swiss Bundesrat Blocher ousted! (4.00 / 2)

It looks like it is not over yet. Switzerland is looking forward to interesting times. I just read that Bundesrat Schmid, the other SVP cabinet member who has been reelected, has been excluded from the SVP - and is now a Bundesrat without party. Oh boy - I hope Widmer will accept and if not, that the parliament does not back down and elect him again - that would be a desaster.

by Fran (fran at eurotrib dot com) on Wed Dec 12th, 2007 at 02:54:52 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Yipeee!!!! Swiss Bundesrat Blocher ousted! (none / 0)

It sounds like a very divided party, so hopefully they cannot be effective! Hope.

Our knowledge has surpassed our wisdom. --Charu Saxena.

by metavision on Wed Dec 12th, 2007 at 05:19:58 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Yipeee!!!! Swiss Bundesrat Blocher ousted! (4.00 / 3)

We sat at breakfast and listened to the radio while Widmer-Schlumpf said "yes", and we were thrilled, because Blocher is out. And this guy has a real rascist/fascist streak. Then the SVP president Maurer and Blocher made statements, what was pretty much "wahh, you'll be sorry for this".

So the Swiss tradition of having seven presidents (the Bundesrats), made up from the 4 main parties, with an agreement to not put their parties politics first and to make all decisions in anonymous agreements...holds. Blocher used his position to push party politics over the country, and could never keep his mouth shut about his own opinions. So he was voted out. Now he can be the loud-mouthed party boss he wants to be...just not as a President.

Also...Some other very interesting and important things happened in this whole process: it sounds like it was the Greens and SP who went and secretly sounded our Widmer-Schlumpf, and their move of nominating a moderate SVP person completely caught the hard-right wing party by surprise. Further, it now creates splits in the SVP party, for the hard-right side have now ousted both of the SVP representatives in the Bundesrat (Schmidt & Widmer-Schlumpf) from their part of the party...which means that these two must create a new faction. My greatest wish was to see the SVP split...and this just might have happened!! So now we have a moderate and a hard right SVP. Very astute politics on the part of the Left, who in the process bonded with the Middle Right CVP (who voted in unison with the Left to oust Blocher), energized a more moderate wing of the SVP, added a third woman to the Presidency, and moved the whole government to a Center/Center-Left standing!! This is really going to stir stuff up...pull up a chair and get the popcorn ready!

<Damn, I wish something like this would happen in the US!>

Congratulations Switzerland...an example of true democracy (and excellent politics)!

Half the population is under the age of 18. Tanzania's future is NOW...join the 50% campaign!

by whataboutbob on Thu Dec 13th, 2007 at 06:38:15 AM EST

Re: Yipeee!!!! Swiss Bundesrat Blocher ousted! (4.00 / 2)

<Damn, I wish something like this would happen in the US!>

Sounds a bit like progressive democrats uniting behind a moderate or centrist democrat (Obama or Clinton) to defeat a conservative Republican Huckabee. The Democratic candidates are very disappointing until you consider the alternative...

Vote McCain for war without gain

by Frank Schnittger (mail Frankschnittger at hot dotty communists) on Thu Dec 13th, 2007 at 09:50:47 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Yipeee!!!! Swiss Bundesrat Blocher ousted! (4.00 / 2)

Actually, I think it sounds more like US Dems uniting behind a moderate Repug against an outright nutter. But of course the parliamentary situation is different in their case. That might have made sense in '00 or '04 (assuming that there is such a thing as a 'moderate Repug' anymore), but this time around they'd have to run a friggin' Communist to lose the election...

- Jake

Ceterum censeo Chicago esse delendam

by JakeS (JangoSierra 'at' gmail 'dot' com) on Thu Dec 13th, 2007 at 05:24:22 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Yipeee!!!! Swiss Bundesrat Blocher ousted! | 14 comments (14 topical, 0 editorial, 0 hidden)

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