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Federal Assembly of Switzerland

Background Colorred
Text Colorwhite
NameFederal Assembly of Switzerland
Native Name 
 
 
 
Coa PicSwiss Council Logo.png
Coa Res180px
Session RoomCH-Bundeshaus-Nord.jpg
Session Res280px
House Typebicameral
HousesCouncil of States
National Council
Leader1 TypePresident of the National Council
Leader1Pascale Bruderer
Party1Social Democratic Party
Leader2 TypePresident of the Council of States
Leader2Erika Forster-Vannini
Party2FDP.The Liberals
Structure1Switzerland_federal_assembly.svg
Structure1 Res250px
Members246
200 National Council
46 Council of States
House1National Council
House2Council of States
Political Groups1 SVP, et al (60)
 SP (42)
 CVP/EPP/glp (36)
 FDP (35)
 Green, et al (20)
 BDP (5)
Political Groups2CVP/EPP/glp (16), FDP (12), SP (9), SVP (6), Green (2), BDP (1)
Meeting PlaceFederal Palace of Switzerland, Bern

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The Federal Assembly ( , , , ), is Switzerland's federal parliament. It meets in Bern in the Federal Palace.

The Federal Assembly is bicameral, being composed of the 200-seat National Council and the 46-seat Council of States. The houses have identical powers. Members of both houses represent the cantons, but, whereas seats in the National Council are distributed in proportion to population, each canton has two seats in the Council of States, except the six 'half-cantons' which have one seat each. Both are elected in full once every four years, with the last election being held in 2007.

The Federal Assembly possesses the federal government's legislative power, along with the separate constitutional right of citizen's initiative. For a law to pass, it must be passed by both houses. The Federal Assembly may come together as a United Federal Assembly in certain circumstances, including to elect the Federal Council, the Federal Chancellor, a General (Swiss generals are only selected in times of great national danger), or federal judges.


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