Swiss Federal Council

The Swiss Federal Council (in German: Bundesrat, in French: Conseil fédéral, in Italian: Consiglio federale) is the seven-member executive council which collectively assumes the office of head of state equivalent to that of a president or of a monarch in the government of Switzerland.

Annemarie Huber-Hotz (as of January 2004)]]

Each of the seven Federal Councillors heads a department. Following the elections of 10 December 2003, they are:

Federal Department of Foreign Affairs (Micheline Calmy-Rey)
Federal Department of Home Affairs (Pascal Couchepin)
Federal Department of Justice and Police (Christoph Blocher)
Federal Department of Defence, Civil Protection and Sports (Samuel Schmid)
Federal Department of Finance (Hans-Rudolf Merz)
Federal Department of Economic Affairs (Joseph Deiss)
Federal Department of Environment, Transport, Energy and Communications (Moritz Leuenberger)

One of the seven is elected to be president of the Federal Council (President of the Confederation) for a term of one year: he or she has no power above and beyond the other six, but assumes special representative functions.

External link

Swiss Federal Council - Official site.