[Culturechat] It's all over but the party

[Vance Roy]

It took almost five hours, but the CH Parliament in multiple rounds 
today elected the executive branch of the government for the next four 
years.

When the smoke cleared there was but one dead body to remove. It was 
that of Ruth Metzler, who was to be only the second woman president of 
the country next year. She was bumped off by an unholy alliance of the 
far right and the far left. The three communist seats in parliament 
withdrew their support for her, the center right and the far right 
combined to support Herr Blocher (who won on the second vote), and Frau 
metzler was left to swing in the breeze.

To top that off, Han-Rudolph Merz, a center right from Appenzell was 
elected to fill the vacated seat of a retiring member of his party. 
Herr Merz is a bit more right than center right, so the "magic formula' 
is broken, and it remains to be seen how much difference this all will 
make. I'll be surprised if it makes for a whole lot of change overall. 
There are now four center right and rights against three center left 
and lefts. From liberal to conservative, they stack up this way:

SP--Micheleine Calmy-Rey (the sole surviving woman Federal Councillor)
SP--Moritz Leuenberger
CVP--Joseph Deiss
FDP--Pascal Couchpin
FDP--Han-Rudolph Merz
SVP--Samuel Schmid
SVP--Christoph Blocher

Expect more emphasis on the high costs of health insurance and care, 
more attempts to improve roads and traffic, more farm support, and less 
emphasis on tax funded social programs,  less ease of asylum entrance 
into CH, and more stringent requirements for citizenship. A consensus 
of the Federal Council to join the EU is unlikely.

All the members vow to continue to remain collegiate, as has been the 
case. Time will tell about that.

The address below will let you in on an interview with the new 
councillor, Christoph Blocher. Look at "Blocher Says He's No Rabble 
Rouser" in the list at the top.

http://www.blocher.ch/en/index.html


Vance Roy
gigli.saw@dplanet.ch
http://homepage.mac.com/fredch
Nobody is perfect. I am nobody. Therefore, I am perfect.