Swiss Federal Council election, 2015

An election for all seven members of the Federal Council, the government of Switzerland, was held on 9 December 2015, following the federal election on 19 October 2015.

Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf, a member of the Conservative Democratic Party (BDP), announced she would not run for re-election after the Swiss People's Party (SVP) won a record 29.4% of the vote, while her own party received 4.1% of the vote. The SVP was widely expected to fill her seat in the election, and it chose Thomas Aeschi (Zug), Guy Parmelin (Vaud) and Norman Gobbi (Ticino) as candidates for the seat, with Aeschi being the favorite at the time.

Guy Parmelin, of the SVP, was ultimately elected on December 9. Parmelin, a farmer and winegrower from Bursins in canton Vaud, was the first member of the Federal Council who is also a member of the Swiss People's Party from the French-speaking part of Switzerland.

There was a minor cabinet reshuffle after the election, as newly-elected Parmelin was selected to become head of the Federal Department of Defence, Civil Protection and Sports, replacing fellow SVP-member Ueli Maurer, who became head of the Federal Department of Finance. The SVP gained its second seat in the Federal Council, which it had lost in 2008, when the newly created BDP split from the SVP.

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