Political families give Swiss lawmakers a head start

Only 10 of Switzerland’s 246 federal parliamentarians have a parent or other close predecessor who also served in the federal Parliament, according to SRF. That means just over 4% belong to a political dynasty.

Having a father or mother who served in the National Council or Council of States can make a political career easier to start. Centre politician Vincent Maître had both a father and a grandfather in Parliament. Centre Council of States member Marianne Binder had a father and father-in-law there, while Green politician Kilian Baumann had both parents in Parliament.

“You are more familiar with politics and more willing to stand for election,” Baumann said. SVP National Council member Nina Fehr Düsel, whose father Hans Fehr was a prominent SVP National Council member, said people with political parents were better prepared and knew what to expect. Politics, she added, required a thick skin.

But political family connections can also create disadvantages. Fehr Düsel said candidates faced prejudice and were automatically told that they were “exactly the same” as their parents. Maître described the challenge this way: “I had a surname, but it took a while to make a first name for myself.”

Party choices often follow parents

Several of the politicians also stressed their desire to follow their own path. FDP National Council member Christian Wasserfallen said he had always insisted that he was not following in anyone’s footsteps.

However, all 10 of the parliamentarians belong to the same party as either their father or their mother. Rahel Freiburghaus, a professor of Swiss and comparative politics at the University of Lausanne, said research showed that political views were in fact passed down between generations.

Recent research on political socialisation in Switzerland and Germany has also identified a gender difference, Freiburghaus said. Sons adopted the views of both parents, whether those views were left-wing or right-wing. Daughters, by contrast, were significantly less likely to adopt their parents’ right-wing views.

Limited influence in Switzerland

Freiburghaus said the small number of political families in Switzerland was surprising in light of the country’s earlier history, when ruling families in both city and rural cantons passed political offices down through the family.

She said political families also had relatively little influence in Switzerland compared with other countries. In Japan, for example, one in three members of parliament came from a ruling family.

Freiburghaus attributed the difference to the party system. Japan is dominated by one very strong party, while party systems in other Southeast Asian countries are weak. Both situations give families greater importance in the allocation of political offices.