Swiss Federal Assembly

Federal Assembly Bundesversammlung  (German) Assemblée fédérale  (French) Assemblea federale  (Italian) Assamblea federala  (Romansh)
Type
Type	Bicameral
Houses	Council of States National Council
Leadership
President of the National Council	Jürg Stahl, SVP/UDC
President of the Council of States	Raphaël Comte, FDP.The Liberals
Structure
Seats	246 200 National Council 46 Council of States
National Council political groups	Government parties (169)      SVP/UDC 65      SP/PS 43      FDP/PLR 33      CVP/PPC 27 Opposition parties (31)      Greens (GPS/PES) 11      BDP/PBD 7      glp/pvl 7      EvP/PEV 2      LT 2      PdA/PST-POP/PC 1      MCG 1
Council of States political groups	Government parties (43)      CVP/PPC 13      FDP/PLR 13      SP/PS 12      SVP/UDC 5 Opposition parties (3)      BDP/PBD 1      Greens (GPS/PES) 1      Independent 1
Elections
National Council last election	18 October 2015
Council of States last election	18 October, 15 and 22 November 2015
Meeting place
Federal Palace of Switzerland, Bern
Website
www.parliament.ch

Government parties (169)

Opposition parties (31)

Government parties (43)

Opposition parties (3)

The Federal Assembly (German: Bundesversammlung, French: Assemblée fédérale, Italian: Assemblea federale, Romansh: Assamblea federala), is Switzerland's federal legislature. It meets in Bern in the Federal Palace.

The Federal Assembly is bicameral, being composed of the 200-seat National Council and the 46-seat Council of States. The houses have identical powers. Members of both houses represent the cantons, but, whereas seats in the National Council are distributed in proportion to population, each canton has two seats in the Council of States, except the six 'half-cantons' which have one seat each. Both are elected in full once every four years, with the last election being held in 2015.

The Federal Assembly possesses the federal government's legislative power, along with the separate constitutional right of citizen's initiative. For a law to pass, it must be passed by both houses. The Federal Assembly may come together as a United Federal Assembly in certain circumstances such as to elect the Federal Council (collective executive head of government and state), the Federal Chancellor, the federal judges or a General (only in times of great national danger).