Federal Councillor Guy Parmelin resigns after years in cabinet
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Guy Parmelin, the winegrower-turned-minister who was often underestimated until the pandemic made him a crisis manager, has announced he will leave the Federal Council at the end of the year. His departure triggers the usual choreographed scramble for a successor, a process that determines not just who joins the seven-member executive, but which party controls which ministry.
The Swiss People's Party (SVP) must now find a candidate who is conservative enough for the base but moderate enough for parliament to actually elect. Magdalena Martullo-Blocher, a prominent SVP figure, has already used a television appearance to clarify she will not be that person. The vacancy arrives as the government tries to sell the Bilateral III package to a skeptical public; opponents have already begun describing the EU deal as a betrayal of independence.
Elsewhere, the Zurich Film Festival has opened with its usual Hollywood guest list, though the city appears largely unmoved by its presence after 22 years. At the same time, an analysis of UBS questions whether the bank has become so tied to the national identity that it is now too Swiss to be successfully sold.