List of members of the Swiss Federal Council by date

For a chronological list of Federal Councillors based upon election, see List of members of the Swiss Federal Council.

The Swiss Federal Council and the Federal Chancellor as of January 2024. From left to right: Viktor Rossi, Élisabeth Baume-Schneider, Ignazio Cassis, Karin Keller-Sutter, Viola Amherd, Guy Parmelin, Albert Rösti, and Beat Jans.

This is a list of members of the Swiss Federal Council,^[1] in chronological order and for any given year since inauguration of the Federal Council, from 1848 to present. Its seven members constitute the federal government of Switzerland and collectively serve as the country's head of state. Each of the seven Federal Councillors heads a department of the Swiss federal administration.^[2]

The members of the Federal Council are elected for a term of four years by both chambers of the federal parliament sitting together as the United Federal Assembly. Each Federal Councillor is elected individually by secret ballot by an absolute majority of votes.^[3] Once elected for a four-year-term, Federal Councillors can neither be voted out of office by a motion of no confidence nor can they be impeached. Reelection is possible for an indefinite number of terms. Parliament has decided not to reelect a sitting Federal Councillor only four times and only twice (in 2003 and 2007) since 1872. In practice, therefore, Federal Councillors serve until they decide to resign and retire to private life, usually after three to five terms of office.^[4]

Chronological, global

  Free Democratic Party (FDP/PRD)

  Christian Democratic People's Party (CVP/PDC)

  Liberal Party (LPS/PLS)

  Swiss People's Party (SVP/UDC)

  Social Democratic Party (SPS/PSS)

  Conservative Democratic Party (BDP/PBD)

  The Centre(Die Mitte/Le Centre)

Decade	First day in office[5]	Federal Councillors
1848	16 November 1848	Ulrich Ochsenbein[6]	Jonas Furrer	Josef Munzinger	Henri Druey	Friedrich Frey-Herosé	Wilhelm Matthias Naeff	Stefano Franscini
1850s
	31 December 1854	Jakob Stämpfli
	11 July 1855[7]				Constant Fornerod
	14 July 1855			Melchior Josef Martin Knüsel
	30 July 1857							Giovanni Battista Pioda
1860s
	30 July 1861		Jakob Dubs
	31 December 1863	Karl Schenk
	12 July 1864							Jean-Jacques Challet-Venel[6]
	31 December 1866					Emil Welti
	31 October 1867				Victor Ruffy
1870s
	1 February 1870				Paul Cérésole
	28 May 1872		Johann Jakob Scherer
	31 December 1872							Eugène Borel
	31 December 1875[7][8]			Joachim Heer	Numa Droz		Fridolin Anderwert	Bernhard Hammer
	31 December 1878[8]			Simeon Bavier
1880s
	3 March 1881[7]						Louis Ruchonnet
	10 April 1883			Adolf Deucher
	13 December 1888		Wilhelm Friedrich Hertenstein
1890s
	31 December 1890							Emil Frey
	31 December 1891					Josef Zemp
	31 December 1892				Adrien Lachenal
	14 December 1893						Eugène Ruffy
	16 August 1895	Eduard Müller	Walter Hauser
	31 March 1897							Ernst Brenner
	14 December 1899						Marc-Emile Ruchet
1900s	31 December 1899				Robert Comtesse
	11 December 1902		Ludwig Forrer
	17 June 1908					Josef Anton Schobinger
1910s
	4 April 1911							Arthur Hoffmann
	14 December 1911					Giuseppe Motta
	12 March 1912				Louis Perrier
	17 July 1912			Edmund Schulthess			Camille Decoppet
	12 June 1913				Felix-Louis Calonder
	26 June 1917							Gustave Ador
	31 December 1917		Robert Haab
	11 December 1919	Karl Scheurer
	31 December 1919						Ernest Chuard	Jean-Marie Musy
1920s
	12 February 1920				Heinrich Häberlin
	31 December 1928						Marcel Pilet-Golaz
	12 December 1929	Rudolf Minger	Albert Meyer
1930s
	30 April 1934				Johannes Baumann			Philipp Etter
	15 April 1935			Hermann Obrecht
	31 December 1938		Ernst Wetter
1940s
	22 February 1940					Enrico Celio
	31 July 1940
	10 December 1940	Eduard von Steiger		Walther Stampfli
	31 December 1940				Karl Kobelt
	31 December 1943		Ernst Nobs
	31 December 1944						Max Petitpierre
	31 December 1947			Rodolphe Rubattel
1950s
	15 October 1950					Josef Escher
	13 December 1951	Markus Feldmann
	31 December 1951		Max Weber
	9 December 1954					Thomas Holenstein
	31 December 1954		Hans Streuli	Paul Chaudet	Giuseppe Lepori
	11 December 1958	Friedrich Traugott Wahlen
1960s	31 December 1959[9]		Willy Spühler		Hans-Peter Tschudi	Ludwig von Moos		Jean Bourgknecht
	30 June 1961						Hans Schaffner
	30 September 1962							Roger Bonvin
	31 December 1965	Rudolf Gnägi
	31 December 1966			Nello Celio
1970s	31 December 1969						Ernst Brugger
	31 January 1970		Pierre Graber
	31 December 1971					Kurt Furgler
	1 December 1973				Willi Ritschard
	31 December 1973			Georges-André Chevallaz				Hans Hürlimann
	31 January 1978		Pierre Aubert				Fritz Honegger
1980s	31 December 1979	Leon Schlumpf
	31 December 1982						Rudolf Friedrich	Alphons Egli
	7 December 1983				Otto Stich
	31 December 1983			Jean-Pascal Delamuraz
	20 October 1984						Elisabeth Kopp
	31 December 1986					Arnold Koller		Flavio Cotti
	31 December 1987	Adolf Ogi	René Felber
	12 January 1989						Kaspar Villiger
1990s	1 January 1990
	1 April 1993[7]		Ruth Dreifuss
	1 November 1995				Moritz Leuenberger
	1 April 1998			Pascal Couchepin
	1 May 1999					Ruth Metzler[6]		Joseph Deiss
2000s
	1 January 2001	Samuel Schmid
	1 January 2003		Micheline Calmy-Rey
	1 January 2004[10]					Christoph Blocher[6]	Hans-Rudolf Merz
	1 August 2006							Doris Leuthard
	1 January 2008					Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf
	1 November 2008[11]	Samuel Schmid				Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf
	1 January 2009	Ueli Maurer
	1 November 2009			Didier Burkhalter
2010s
	1 November 2010				Simonetta Sommaruga		Johann Schneider-Ammann
	1 January 2012		Alain Berset
	1 January 2016					Guy Parmelin
	1 November 2017			Ignazio Cassis
	1 January 2019						Karin Keller-Sutter	Viola Amherd
2020s
	1 January 2021							Viola Amherd
	1 January 2023	Albert Rösti			Élisabeth Baume-Schneider
	1 January 2024		Beat Jans
	25 April 2025

Timeline

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Notes

1. German: Schweizerischer Bundesrat, French: Conseil fédéral suisse, Italian: Consiglio federale svizzero, Romansh: Cussegl federal svizzer.
2. Swiss Federal Constitution / Bundesverfassung (BV) / Constitution fédérale (Cst.) / Costituzione federale (Cost.) of 7 February 1999, SR/RS 101 ^(E·D·F·I), art. 177 ^(E·D·F·I)
3. This is the prevailing reading of the relevant constitutional provision: Swiss Federal Constitution / Bundesverfassung (BV) / Constitution fédérale (Cst.) / Costituzione federale (Cost.) of 7 February 1999, SR/RS 101 ^(E·D·F·I), art. 175 ^(E·D·F·I)
4. Federal Council in German, French and Italian in the online Historical Dictionary of Switzerland.
5. Members are elected by federal parliament for a four-year term and traditionally re-elected. If the predecessor died in office, date of election, otherwise – if available – first day in office.
6. Not reelected (Jean-Jacques Challet-Venel, Ulrich Ochsenbein, Ruth Metzler, Christoph Blocher)
7. The office was previously declined by the first person elected:
   • 11 July 1855 Johann Jakob Stehlin (1803–1879) BS;
   • 18 December 1875 Charles Estoppey (1820–1888) VD;
   • 10 December 1875 Louis Ruchonnet (1834–1893) VD, accepted later;
   • 22 February 1881 Karl Hoffmann (1820–1895) SG;
   • 3 March 1993 Francis Matthey (1942–) NE.
8. Exceptionally low representation of the French and Italian speaking cantons, compared to the German speaking ones (1:6). In recent years, those were overrepresented 3:4 (proportional to their population). Currently, the 2:5 proportion is close to the population proportion.
9. Traditional "magic formula" of the Council's composition established: FDP/PRD 2, CVP/PDC 2, SPS/PSS 2, SVP/UDC 1.
10. Government composition changed for the first time since 1959: FDP/PRD 2, SPS/PSS 2, SVP/UDC 2, CVP/PDC 1.
11. In June 2008, parts of the SVP/UDC broke away to later form the new BDP/PBD. In this process, the two Federal Councillors who had been elected for the SVP/UDC became members of the BDP/PBD.

References

• Federal Council in German, French and Italian in the online Historical Dictionary of Switzerland.
• Swiss Federal Chancellery. "The Swiss Confederation: A brief guide 2007". Archived from the original on 14 May 2013. Retrieved 10 February 2008.
• Services of the Swiss Parliament. "Resultate der Wahlen des Bundesrats, der Bundeskanzler und des Generals" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 27 February 2008. Retrieved 10 February 2008.
• Swiss Federal Chancellery. "Chronological index of Federal Councillors". Archived from the original on 2 January 2008. Retrieved 10 February 2008.
• Swiss Federal Chancellery. "Members of the Federal Council who declined election". Archived from the original on 3 February 2008. Retrieved 10 February 2008.
• Church, Clive H. (2004). The Politics and Government of Switzerland. Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 0-333-69277-2.