Politics in Switzerland

Yes we do have them, although not very well known in the wide world. After all it only needs six hours to travel from West to East and four from North to South in Switzerland (by train or road of course, if the mountains were not in the way it would go a lot quicker).

Once a year we have voting for our country's government. Basically there are 7 ministers, all carefully chosen and they have to be from certain parties. Sort of 2 Socialists, 2 Conservative, 1 Christian and 2 peoples party. It is a bit of a thing with this people's party. Many years ago they were known as the farmer's party and it was good. The farming regions had their representatives in parliment and had their say of things - bearing in mind that a great deal of Switzerland is occupied by cows and therefore many farms. to go with them. However over the years a business man appeared on the political scene representing the people's party. He had very right wing views and decided it was time to get rid of certain foreign elements in the population. This is always popular with any country and many people decided he was our new "saviour". I took this all with a pinch of salt. At this time there were 2 from the Christian party in the government and 1 belonging to the people's party. This person became so popular with some rightwing elements of the Swiss population that he was voted as No. 2 of the people's party into the government and one of the christian party had to go.

This is the man I mean. Now today we had a nice little sensation in our houses of parliament at the annual voting of the parliament ministers. He was deselected. He did not obtain enough votes from the members of parliament to maintain his post as Minister. My husband phoned me at work to tell me the good news. Although loved by many in our country, not by all and I do not belong to his fans. At the same time a new minister for the parliament was voted for. A female who is very well-known, liked by many and her father was one of our earlier ministers, but now retired. She also belongs to the people's party, but as with all parties there are moderate politicians and extreme politicians. She is moderate and very popular. Our little country had one little problem. The lady in question did not expect to be voted as a minister today and she was not in the houses of parliament but somewhere else, so they had to find her and tell her. This took four hours (in such a small country). The second problem is would she accept or not. She has now been asked officially and said she needs time to think about it and will give her answer tomorrow. So we are all waiting for her answer.

If she says no (which I hope she doesn't) it means that the comedy starts again from the beginning. If the gentleman on the poster above is again suggested, it could be that his faithful disciples decide that everyone must be there to place their vote, and he gets in all the same.

Excitement in Switzerland, but like any other land, politics is just a dirty business some way or the other. Here is a picture of the lady in question - will she or will she not accept???