Federal Council: Why do away with the magic formula?

Participation, this Wednesday, October 12, A debate on the Federal Council’s «magic formula» on the set of the «Forum» program on Radio Télévision Suisse (RTS) prompted me to delve deeper into the subject. Even more so after the show, unfortunately. But that, after all, is what a debate is for.

Some of you may know what it’s like. Others can only imagine. Taking part in a televised debate means facing a situation you’d imagined a little differently, causing all the ideas and notes you’d gathered for just a few minutes of speaking time to suddenly come crashing down. And you already regret not having prepared them well enough. Yet what you had to say was so relevant—even irreverent! Except you didn’t say it—at least not all of it. It’s always easier afterward. So you might as well take advantage of that. If only to keep the discussion going.

Federal Council: The SVP’s Membership in Question

Indeed, this article is perhaps the best way to answer the question of blog post by Chantal Tauxe – an article that led to the organization of the debate in question. Entitling her text «Le bilan de la présence de deux UDC au Conseil fédéral qui ne sera pas tiré» ("The balance sheet of the presence of two SVP in the Federal Council that will not be drawn"), the vice-president of the European Movement Switzerland and former journalist of the late L’Hebdo has expressed her dissatisfaction with the Federal Council’s work ever since it has included two SVP members (that is, since 2003, with the election of Christoph Blocher). According to her, the presence in the federal executive of Switzerland’s largest party—which holds the same number of seats as the Liberal-Radicals and the Socialists—has resulted in the Federal Council «struggling immensely to articulate its vision, reach compromises, and win over the public.»”

According to her, therefore, it is time to do away with the «magic formula»—which allocates the seven ministerial seats as follows: two seats each for the top three parties in parliament and one seat for the fourth. The purely arithmetic nature of this arrangement, in place since 1959, is no longer—or is no longer—adequate to meet the challenges facing the country, particularly its need to clarify its relations with the European Union (EU). «Under the influence of the UDC,» writes Chantal Tauxe, Switzerland «has gone from being a privileged partner of the EU to a third-country candidate that doesn’t even dare to admit it to itself.» In short, the national-conservative party is primarily to blame—if not solely to blame, as the editorialist does not mention any other responsible parties—for the failure of the framework agreement.

Do not mix apples and pears

This viewpoint strikes me as simply wrong. The reasons for this are quite straightforward. How could this “magic formula”—which is supposed to guarantee a balanced representation of the country’s major political forces—have anything to do with the failure to reach a Swiss-EU institutional agreement? To make a decision, the committee must obtain the unanimous agreement of at least four of its seven members. The SVP, let’s reiterate, is represented by only two members. There’s no need to attribute to them some contagious and dangerous power of persuasion to acknowledge what is, in any case, already known. Namely, that the framework agreement also divided the PLR and the PS, that the trade union left was very active in derailing the project, and that there are as many opinions on the EU as there are federal councilors. How, then, can a government proposal be finalized?

The fact that Chantal Tauxe does not once point to the left’s responsibility in this matter borders on intellectual paralysis. One senses in her—at least in this editorial—a desire to oppose the SVP that leads her down obscure lines of thought.

Besides, what does she intend to replace the «magic formula» with? The answer seems quite obvious: a Federal Council without the SVP. «When the country’s leading party has nothing to say other than to claim that it can be bypassed without risk and without significant harm to our prosperity and security, one should at least ask—in light of a chance vacancy—whether it still has a place in the Federal Council.» In other words: Switzerland’s leading party does not hold positions or behave in ways that please my colleague, so that party had better look elsewhere.

A constantly reformulated formula

This overlooks the fact that in Switzerland, it is the two chambers of Parliament that represent the people and the cantons: it is then up to them to elect the executive branch. This is based on a shared commitment to partisan pluralism, but also to the diversity of cantonal backgrounds and—perhaps even more importantly—to the complementary nature of personalities and expertise. All of this constitutes the «magic formula.» Shaped by direct democracy, it is constantly evolving. Thus, seeking to put an end to the magic formula is not only unjustified but also impossible.

The indictment by Chantal Tauxe—for whom I have great respect and with whom I enjoy exchanging ideas—turns out to be all the more amusing in this instance because a recent survey has revealed the Swiss population’s profound lack of interest in European affairs. I, for one, am hardly pleased by this state of affairs, if only for the sake of the Swiss economy’s competitiveness. But that doesn’t change anything. If the Federal Council’s legitimacy had anything to do with our respective sensibilities, we would all want a government composed exclusively of the party that convinces us the most or bothers us the least.

Never mind: even when the seats of the Seven Sages were occupied exclusively by radicals (from 1848 to 1891!), the body was far from homogeneous. As historian Olivier Meuwly points out in his various writings on the subject— one of our contributors – The tensions between the various factions of radicalism at the time—whether centralists or federalists, left-wing or right-wing, conservative or progressive—were reflected within the executive branch and gave rise to bitter battles. That is why we can speak, without sarcasm, of a «magical» formula, one destined to endure.

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Florides Helvètes

Watch the debate featuring Chantal Tauxe and Jonas Follonier, along with historian Hervé Rayner, which took place on Wednesday, October 12, 2022, on RTS’s «Forum» program: