Federal Assembly (Switzerland) - Groups

Groups

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Parties can cooperate in groups, allowing smaller parties access to rights as part of a caucus. These groups must have at least five members and must be maintained across both chambers. Being a member of a formal group gives members the right to sit on committees, and those that aren't members can't speak in most debates. Each group receives a fixed allowance of €112,000, whilst each member of a group also receives an additional €20,800 a year each.

Since March 2009, there have been six groups in the Federal Assembly. The latest group to form was the Conservative Democratic Party which split off the Swiss People's Party in 2008. The Christian Democrats/EPP/glp Group (CEg) was formed after the 2007 elections, out of the former Christian Deocratic (C) and EPP (E) groups. The current FTP/Liberal group (RL) was formed in 2003 out of the former FDP (R) and Liberal (L) groups; since the 2009 fusion of the Free Democrati and Liberal Parties, RL is once again a single-party group. In 2011, the CEg was disbanded, the Green Liberals formed their own faction (GL) and the three Christian parties formed the Christian-Evangelical Group (CE).

Currently (as of 2012), the seven factions are composed as follows:

Group Parties NC CS Total
People's Faction (V) Swiss People's Party 54 5 62
Ticino League 2 0
Independent 0 1
Social Democrats Faction (S) Social Democratic Party 46 11 57
Christian-Evangelical Faction (CE) Christian Democratic People's Party 28 13 44
Evangelical People's Party 2 0
Christian Social Party 1 0
FDP.The Liberals Faction (RL) FDP.The Liberals 30 11 41
Green Faction (G) Green Party 15 2 17
Green Liberal Faction (GL) Green Liberal Party 12 2 14
BDP Faction (BD) Conservative Democratic Party 9 1 10
Without Faction Geneva Citizens' Movement 1 0 1

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