Middle wife Franziska Biner breaks men bastion

The Valais chose a woman in his cantonal government for the second time in his story. Middle candidate Franziska Biner achieved a brilliant result in the State Council elections. With 51,149 votes, she was the only candidate in the 1st ballot to reach the absolute more-although she could not count on the previous bonus. Unlike her party colleague Christophe Darbellay, who ended up in second place with almost 10,000 votes.

With the Vote of the Valais population, Switzerland's last male bastion falls: in no other canton there is currently a cantonal government that was dominated by men, as has been the case in Valais in the past four years.

Although one has to add: in March 2021, when the Valais voting population chose for the last time and occupied the five government seats with five men, the mountain canton was still in good company. At that time, six other cantons also had no one in the government: Lucerne, Ticino, Appenzell Ausserrhoden, Graubünden, Aargau, Uri. In all six cantons, this has changed over the past four years. And now also in Valais. The fact that a woman returned to the State Council was expected in advance because only six candidates had applied for the five State Council seats – Franziska Biner as the only woman. However, many surprised her so clear result.

Grew up in Zermatt, studied in Zurich

The 38-year-old has made a name for herself in Valais politics in recent years. She has been chasing the middle of Oberwallis for eight years. In 2021 she was elected to the cantonal parliament, and last autumn to the municipal council of Zermatt. There she grew up with her three siblings. The father worked as a mountain guide and electrician, the mother as a hut manager – typical professions in the mountain village. On the other hand, the fact that Briner's mother, even with four children, was always paid for paid work and thus opposed the roles dominating in Oberwalli.

The newly elected Council of State politically shaped this. The 38-year-old, who studied architecture at the ETH Zurich and works as a construction manager, is committed to ensuring that the state promotes and financed crib places. She ticks liberal on socio -political issues. In other subject areas, on the other hand, it pursues a more conservative line that one would expect from a center member of Oberwallis. It gives priority over new reservoirs compared to nature conservation and speaks for a harder gait against the wolf.

Just as her party colleague Christophe Darbellay does, the figurehead of the former CVP, whose president he was from 2006 to 2016. With 41,376 voices, Darbellay landed significantly behind Franziska Biner, although he has been in the Valais cantonal government since 2017.

Is there a second ballot?

The 53-year-old had made headlines with federal councilor in the past few weeks. While the middle was desperately looking for candidacies for the successor of Viola Amherd, Darbellay invited to a media conference in the Unterwallis on Sunday evening – just to announce that he did not want to run, his heart beat for the Valais.

Apparently he didn't harm him. Because while Darbellay posted the worst result of all chosen ones in the last elections four years ago, he was now the second best. The two previous state councils Mathias Reynard from the SP (41,368 votes) and Franz Ruppen from the SVP (37,341) follow him. FDP candidate Stéphane Ganzer came in fifth place (32,692), far ahead of the green challenger Emmanuel Revaz (19,540).

Even if Revaz only wants to choose until Monday, Revaz is generally expected and therefore no second ballot will be necessary. This would not change the party political composition of the Valais State Council: In the past four years, SVP, SP and FDP each had one seat in the government, while the middle of their two.