Switzerland is a semi-direct democratic federal republic. The federal legislative power is vested in the two chambers of the Federal Assembly: the National Council and the Council of States. The Federal Council holds the executive power and is composed of seven power-sharing Federal Councillors elected by the Federal Assembly. The judicial branch is headed by the Federal Supreme Court of Switzerland, whose judges are elected by the Federal Assembly.
Solothurn is a town, a municipality, and the capital of the canton of Solothurn in Switzerland. It is located in the north-west of Switzerland on the banks of the Aare and on the foot of the Weissenstein Jura mountains.
Walther Stampfli was a Swiss politician and member of the Swiss Federal Council (1940–1947).
The Federal Council is the federal cabinet of the Swiss Confederation. Its seven members also serve as the collective head of state and government of Switzerland. Since after World War II, the Federal Council is by convention a permanent grand coalition government composed of representatives of the country's major parties and language regions.
Willi Ritschard was a Swiss politician of the Social Democratic Party (SP). He is remembered as the first and to date only working class member of the Federal Council, the Swiss government. Prior to that, he was also a member of the cantonal government of Solothurn and a member of the National Council.
Elections to the Swiss Federal Assembly, the federal parliament of Switzerland, were held on Sunday, 21 October 2007. In a few cantons, a second round of the elections to the Council of States was held on 11 November, 18 November, and 25 November 2007. For the 48th legislative term of the federal parliament (2007–2011), voters in 26 cantons elected all 200 members of the National Council as well as 43 out of 46 members of the Council of States. The other three members of the Council of States for that term of service were elected at an earlier date.
Fulvio Pelli is a Swiss politician. He was the last president of the Free Democratic Party prior to its merger with the Liberal Party of Switzerland. After the merger of the two parties, he served as the first president of FDP.The Liberals from 2009 to 2012. Pelli was a member of the Swiss National Council from 1995 to 2014. He served in the communal legislature of Lugano from 1980 to 1990 and in the Grand Council of Ticino from 1983 to 1995.
Women in Switzerland gained the right to vote in federal elections after a referendum in February 1971. The first federal vote in which women were able to participate was the 31 October 1971 election of the Federal Assembly. However it was not until a 1990 decision by the Federal Supreme Court of Switzerland that women gained full voting rights in the final Swiss canton of Appenzell Innerrhoden.
Guillaume Barazzone, is a politician and member of the Swiss Christian Democratic Party (CDP). He is elected to the Administrative Council for the City of Geneva in 2012 and member of the Swiss National Council since December 2013.
Alfred Armand Adolf von Steiger, commonly known as Adolf von Steiger was a Swiss Politician from the Free Democratic Party of Switzerland (FDP) and jurist, who served as the sixth Chancellor from 1919 to 1925.
François Couchepin was a Swiss lawyer and politician who served as Chancellor of Switzerland from 1991 to 1999. He was a member of the now-defunct Free Democratic Party of Switzerland (FDP/PRD).
Rudolf "Ruedi" Noser is a Swiss businessman and politician. Between 2003 and 2015, he served as a member of the National Council (Switzerland) for The Liberals. In the 2015 Swiss federal election, Noser was elected into the Council of States and assumed office on 8 December 2015, which he held until December 2023. He is the sole owner of Noser Group, a diversified software company, which he founded. Noser has an estimated net worth of CHF 50 million estimated by Bilanz magazine.
Trix Heberlein-Ruff is a Swiss politician of the Free Democratic Party (FDP) and a former president of the National Council of Switzerland.
Urs Dietschi was a Swiss lawyer who entered government service. He then became increasingly caught up in politics and in 1929 became a co-founder of an organisation called the "Jungliberale Bewegung". At the urging of like-minded liberal-radical activists, he secured election to the Solothurn cantonal parliament in 1933, remaining a member till 1937. In 1943 he secured election to the "Nationalrat", representing the Free Democratic Party on behalf of his canton. Meanwhile, he remained a leading figure in cantonal governance, serving as a member of the Solothurn cantonal executive between 1937 and 1966. At both National and cantonal levels he took a consistent interest in social policy and cultural affairs, and was also prominent as an advocate of enhanced social, economic and political rights for women, at a time when Switzerland was, by European standards, widely seen as something of a laggard in such matters.
Emil Lohner was a Swiss politician initially on a cantonal level and later nationally.
Sandra Locher Benguerel is an educator and politician of the Social Democratic Party of Switzerland (SP). Since 2019, she is a member of the National Council, the lower house of the Swiss Parliament.
Cornelia Füeg is a Swiss lawyer and politician who served as the national councilor and government councilor of the canton of Solothurn.
