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楼主 |
发表于 2008-9-11 13:51:38
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Rightful place
The Schmid affair has national importance because of the opportunity it offers to the SVP to return to government. By a custom observed for over forty years, positions in the seven-member cabinet, known as the Federal Council, have been divided roughly on a pro rata basis between the country’s four largest parties. Currently, however, the SVP has no representation in cabinet. It topped the poll in the October 2007 general election, winning 62 of parliament’s 200 seats. In the previous government the SVP had two ministers, Mr Schmid and the party's leading personality, Christoph Blocher. The SVP demanded in the wake of the 2007 election that the controversial Mr Blocher return. Although he was considered to have performed well as justice minister in 2003-07, his polarising style and brash method of governing created considerable tension in the cabinet.
In the event, however, parliament elected another SVP politician, Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf to the government; she ignored SVP instructions and accepted the post. In response, the SVP moved into opposition—the first time a major party had done so since 1959, when the current governing arrangements were established. To punish Ms Widmer-Schlumpf for ignoring the party's wishes, the SVP leadership decided to expel her from the party, and under party rules was forced to do expel the entire cantonal section that she belonged to. |
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