In December the Swiss parliament picks a minister. Thomas Aeschi wants the seat.

What happened

Thomas Aeschi, who leads the Swiss People’s Party group in parliament, said he wants to replace Guy Parmelin in Switzerland’s government.

Guy Parmelin leaves Switzerland’s government on 31 December. He has been a minister for 11 years. The government, called the Federal Council, has seven members. The four largest parties share the seats two, two, two and one under an old unwritten deal, the “magic formula”. So the new minister will come from Mr Parmelin’s party, the Swiss People’s Party (SVP). Both chambers of parliament will vote together, most likely on 9 December.

Eight party members applied by 23 October. They are Thomas Aeschi, Céline Amaudruz, Marco Chiesa, Jean-Pierre Gallati, Michael Graber, Franz Ruppen, Pierre Alain Schnegg and Rémy Wyssmann. A party panel led by Caspar Baader is testing their views on the European Union treaties and on migration, among other issues. It also looks at leadership experience, with the justice and defence ministries in mind. On 20 November the party’s members of parliament will choose the official names they put to parliament.

On 8 November Thomas Aeschi said he wants the seat. He has led the party’s group in parliament for nine years and lost to Mr Parmelin in 2015. He said he was ready to take over the justice and police ministry. Mr Parmelin is from Vaud, in the French-speaking west. Only two of the eight are French speakers, Ms Amaudruz and Mr Schnegg, and the party’s Vaud branch wants the seat to stay with a French speaker.

Parliament votes in secret and can choose a party member who is not on the official list. To win, a person needs more than half of the valid votes. The party’s rules, in the version in force since April 2022, say that a member who accepts the seat without the party’s nomination stops being a member at once.

On November 20, the parliamentary group will decide on the list of candidates to be put before parliament for election to the Federal Council.

swissinfo (Keystone-SDA), 23 October 2026

Sources: swissinfo (2, 3, 4, 5), RFI, Swiss Parliament, Swiss People's Party (2), UDC Vaud, Fedlex

The Pattern

We looked for cases where a minister from the Social Democrats on the left or the Swiss People’s Party on the right left the government in the middle of a term, and parliament filled only that one seat that day. We found five such elections since the seats were first shared out in 1959. Each time the party of the minister who left kept the seat. (Swiss Parliament; Swiss Parliament; swissinfo; RFI)

The Read

Mr Aeschi first needs a place on the list on 20 November. He is one of eight, and lists in these elections had one or two names. Parliament has not chosen anyone off a list since 2000: all 16 seats filled from 2002 to 2025 went to an official candidate. Under the party’s current rules, a member who wins off the list also loses membership. In the three past elections where the party offered two names, the vote went to five rounds or more. The new minister will hold the seat until December 2027, when all seven are elected again.

The latest of the five past elections was in 2002. In 1965, 1993 and 1995 a rule still stopped two ministers coming from the same canton. That rule ended in 1999. In 2000 Samuel Schmid, chosen off the list, stayed in the party until 2008, so the party did not yet punish such a win. Language may also matter. Twice a French speaker left, and each time another French speaker took the seat. This time only two of the eight candidates are French speakers.

Sources: Swiss People's Party (2), Swiss Parliament (2, 3), swissinfo (2)