National Council of Switzerland

National Council of Switzerland German: Nationalrat French: Conseil National Italian: Consiglio Nazionale Romansh: Cussegl Naziunal
Type
Type	lower house
Members	200
Meeting place
Website
www.parliament.ch

The National Council of Switzerland (German: Nationalrat, French: Conseil National, Italian: Consiglio Nazionale, Romansh: Cussegl Naziunal) is the lower house of the Federal Assembly of Switzerland. With 200 seats, it is the larger of the two houses.

The National Council is elected by Swiss adult citizens, as is most of the Swiss Council of States. There were 4.6 million citizens old enough to vote in 2003. Members, called 'National Councillors', serve for four-year terms.

Each of the 26 cantons is a constituency. The number of deputies of each constituency depends on the population of the canton. Zürich, which is the most-populous canton, has 34 seats; Uri, Glarus, Obwalden, Nidwalden, Appenzell Ausserrhoden, and Appenzell Innerrhoden, each have only one seat.^[1] For cantons with more than one seat, proportional representation is used.

2011 election

Main article: Swiss federal election, 2011

Switzerland

This article is part of the series: Politics and government of Switzerland

Constitution Human rights Federal Council List of members Micheline Calmy-Rey (Pres. 11) Doris Leuthard Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf (VP 11) Ueli Maurer Didier Burkhalter Simonetta Sommaruga Johann Schneider-Ammann Federal Chancellor Corina Casanova Federal administration Federal Assembly Council of States List of members National Council List of members Political parties Elections Voting in Switzerland 2003 2007 2011 Federal courts Federal Supreme Court Federal Criminal Court Federal Administrative Court Foreign relations Switzerland and the European Union Subdivisions Cantons Municipalities

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The 2011 election to the National Council resulted in a strengthening of the political center, reversing the trend towards polarisation in Swiss politics during the 1990s and 2000s, the centrist parties gaining an overall of about 7% of the popular vote, with the right pole losing 3.6% and the left pole losing 3.5%. Voter turnout was 48.6%, compared to 48.9% in 2007.

e • d Summary of the 23 October 2011 National Council of Switzerland election results

Parties		Abbr.	Alignment	Ideology	Votes[2]	%	+/–	Seats	+/–
	Swiss People's Party	SVP/UDC	Right-wing	National conservatism	641,106	26.6	−2.4	54	−8
	Social Democratic Party	SPS/PSS	Left-wing	Social democracy	450,693	18.7	−0.9	46	+3
	FDP.The Liberals	FDP/PLR	Centre-right	Classical liberalism	364,704	15.1	−2.5	30	−5
	Christian Democratic People's Party	CVP/PDC	Centre	Christian democracy	296,350	12.3	−2.2	28[3]	−3
	Green Party	GPS/PES	Left-wing	Green politics	203,447	8.4	−1.2	15	−5
	Green Liberal Party	GLP/PVL	Centre	Green liberalism	130,041	5.4	+4.0	12	+9
	Conservative Democratic Party	BDP/PBD	Centre-right	Conservatism / economic liberalism	130,878	5.4	New	9	New
	Evangelical People's Party	EVP/PEV	Centre	Christian democracy	48,259	2.0	−0.4	2	±0
	Ticino League	LdT	Right-wing	Regionalism / Right-wing populism	18,956	0.8	+0.2	2	+1
	Christian Social Party	CSP/PCS	Left-wing	Christian left	15,312	0.6	+0.2	1[4]	±0
	Geneva Citizens' Movement	MCG	Right-wing	Regionalism / Right-wing populism	10,555	0.4	+0.3	1	+1
	Federal Democratic Union	EDU/UDF	Right-wing	Christian right	30,340	1.3	±0	0	−1
	Left (Alternative Left, Party of Labour, solidarités)	LIN/GAU	Far-left	Socialism / communism	28,861	1.2	−0.1	0	−1
	Other				40,623	1.7		0	±0
Total (turnout 49.1%)					2,410,125	—	—	200	—
Source: Federal Chancellery, Swiss Broadcasting DRS (German)

2007 election

Main article: Swiss federal election, 2007

The 2007 election to the National Council saw the Swiss People's Party strengthen its position as the largest party, gaining seven seats to put it on 62. In second place, the Social Democratic Party lost nine seats, giving it 43. The Free Democratic Party and Christian Democratic People's Party tied for third place with 31 seats each, having lost five seats and gained three seats respectively. The Green Party broke into the main group of parties, increasing its number of seats by seven to leave it on 20 after the election.

e • d Summary of the 21 October 2007 National Council of Switzerland election results

Parties		Abbr.	Ideology	Votes	%	+/–	Seats	+/–
	Swiss People's Party	SVP/UDC	National conservatism	672,562	28.9	+2.2	62	+7
	Social Democratic Party	SPS/PSS	Social democracy	451,916	19.5	–3.8	43	–9
	Free Democratic Party	FDP/PLR	Classical liberalism, Radicalism	364,736	15.8	–1.3	31	–5
	Christian Democratic People's Party	CVP/PDC	Christian democracy	335,623	14.5	+0.1	31	+3
	Green Party	GPS/PES	Green politics	222,206	9.6	+2.2	20	+7
	Liberal Party	LPS/PLS	Classical liberalism	41,682	1.9	–0.3	4	±0
	Green Liberal Party	GLP/PVL	Green liberalism	33,104	1.4	N/A	3	N/A
	Evangelical People's Party	EVP/PEV	Christian democracy	56,748	2.4	+0.1	2	–1
	Federal Democratic Union	EDU/UDF	Christian right	29,914	1.3	±0.0	1	–1
	Party of Labour	PdA/PST-POP	Communism	17,218	0.7	±0.0	1	–1
	Ticino League	LdT	National conservatism	13,031	0.6	+0.2	1	±0
	Christian Social Party	CSP/PCS	Christian left	9,984	0.4	±0.0	1	±0
	Swiss Democrats	SD/DS	Nationalism	12,609	0.5	–0.5	0	–1
	solidaritéS	Sol	Socialism	8,669	0.4	–0.1	0	–1
	Alternative List	AL	Socialism	4,582	0.2	–0.3	0	±0
	Others			43,327	1.8	+0.2	0	±0
Total (turnout 48.9%)				2,317,911	—	—	200	—
Source: http://www.politik-stat.ch/nrw2007CH_de.html

Development of composition of the Swiss National Council, 1919-2003.

Committees

• Foreign Affairs Committee (FAC)
• Committee for Science, Education and Culture (CSEC)
• Committee for Social Security and Health (CSSH)
• Committee for the Environment, Spatial Planning and Energy (CESPE)
• Defence Committee (DefC)
• Committee for Transportation and Telecommunications (CTT)
• Committee for Economic Affairs and Taxation (CEAT)
• Political Institutions Committees (PIC)
• Committee for Legal Affairs (CLA)
• Committee for Public Buildings (CPB)

Supervisory committees

• Finance Committee (FC)
• Control Committees (CC)
• Parliamentary investigation committees (PIC)

Other committees

• Committee on Pardons
• Rehabilitation Committee
• Drafting Committee
• Judicial Committee

Lists

• Presidents of the National Council of Switzerland.
• List of members of the Swiss National Council (2007-2011)
• List of members of the Swiss National Council (2003-2007)

Members per canton

Abbr	Canton	Number of Seats
ZH	Zurich	34
BE	Bern	26
LU	Lucerne	10
UR	Uri	1
SZ	Schwyz	4
OW	Obwalden (Obwald)	1
NW	Nidwalden (Nidwald)	1
GL	Glarus	1
ZG	Zug	3
FR	Fribourg	7
SO	Solothurn	7
BS	Basel-Stadt (Basel-City)	5
BL	Basel-Landschaft (Basel-Country)	7
SH	Schaffhausen	2
AR	Appenzell Ausserrhoden (Appenzell Outer Rhodes)	1
AI	Appenzell Innerrhoden (Appenzell Inner Rhodes)	1
SG	St. Gallen (St. Gall)	12
GR	Graubünden (Grisons)	5
AG	Aargau (Argovia)	15
TG	Thurgau (Thurgovia)	6
TI	Ticino	8
VD	Vaud	18
VS	Valais (Wallis)	7
NE	Neuchâtel	5
GE	Geneva	11
JU	Jura	2

Footnotes

1. ^ http://www.parlament.ch/homepage/ra-nr-nationalrat/ra-nr-nationalrat-mitglieder-prokanton.htm
2. ^ The official results are listed by canton. These numbers are a summary of the 26 separate tables of cantonal results. See German-language Wikipedia for details.
3. ^ One seat for Ticino goes to either Duca Widmer Monica or Romano Marco, both of whom received the exact same number of 23,979 votes. It is yet to be decided (as of 25 October) which candidate will receive the seat.
4. ^ Karl Vogler of Obwalden, declared his intention to join the Christian Democratic parliamentary group.