Peter Hegglin out of the running for seat in Federal Council

Peter Hegglin, a former cantonal director of Finance in Zug who currently sits in the Council of States, and Elisabeth Schneider-Schneiter of the Rural Canton of Basel who sits in the National Council, lost out to Viola Amherd, of the canton of Wallis, and Heidi Z’graggen of the canton of Uri, to be nominated to stand for election to the Federal Council on Wednesday 5 December following selection by the CVP party on Friday.

Amherd, who sits in the National council in Bern, and Z’graggen, a member of the Uri cantonal government, will be joined by two candidates chosen by the FDP party, Karin Keller Suter of St Gallen, the leader of the Council of States, and Hans Wicki of the canton of Nidwalden, who also sits in the Council of States, the smaller of the two parliamentary chambers in Bern, at the elections, in a secret ballot, in just over two weeks’ time.

Naturally Hegglin was disappointed in not being nominated, adding how it seemed the party wanted to ensure a woman got through. Did Hegglin’s lack of competence in English play a role in this? Readers may remember he was unexpectedly asked if he could translate into English a reply he had just before expressed in German at a question-and-answer session in Bern, a question which left him searching for the right words and which led some to consider whether Hegglin was a suitable candidate for a seat on the Federal Council.

In a subsequent interview, Gerhard Pfister, the leader of the national CVP party who represents Zug in the National Council, was asked about this matter on television and said it was more important for a Federal Council to be able to speak French and Italian than English. Perhaps not surprisingly, the interviewer went on to ask Pfister, who holds a doctorate in philosophy from the University of Basel, a question in English, to which he replied unfalteringly. In fact, his English was better than the interviewer’s.