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National

Federal Assembly

  • French: Assemblée fédérale
  • German: Bundesversammlung
  • Italian: Assemblea federale
  • Romansh: Assemblea federala

Governs Switzerland

Official website (parlament.ch) Report a problem with this page

Source: fedlex.admin.ch, checked
What it's for

Switzerland's two-chamber parliament: the National Council (200 members, by population) and the Council of States (46 members, two per canton, one per half-canton). The chambers have equal powers and meet together as the United Federal Assembly for elections.

Federal Constitution Art. 148-151

Next vote

  • General election · Member of the National Council
  • General election · Member of the Council of States

National Council

Sourced · checked

Sources for who sits on it

  • President of the National Council fedlex.admin.ch · checked
  • Pierre-André Page as President of the National Council en.wikipedia.org · checked
  • Member of the National Council fedlex.admin.ch · checked
Report a problem

Council of States

Sourced · checked

Sources for who sits on it

  • President of the Council of States fedlex.admin.ch · checked
  • Stefan Engler as President of the Council of States en.wikipedia.org · checked
  • Member of the Council of States fedlex.admin.ch · checked
Report a problem

What it can do

  • Supreme authority of the Confederation

    Federal Constitution Art. 148: subject to the rights of the People and the cantons, the Federal Assembly is the supreme authority of the Confederation. It consists of the National Council and the Council of States, which have equal powers (Art. 148(2)).

  • Legislation

    Federal Constitution Art. 163-165: the Federal Assembly enacts federal acts and ordinances in the form of federal acts, federal decrees and ordinances; the two chambers must agree on every act.

  • Budget and finances

    Federal Constitution Art. 167: the Federal Assembly decides on expenditure, adopts the budget and approves the state accounts.

  • Elections and oversight

    Federal Constitution Art. 168-169: the United Federal Assembly elects the Federal Council members, the Federal Chancellor, the Federal Supreme Court justices and, in time of need, the General; the Assembly exercises supreme supervision over the Federal Council, the federal administration and the federal courts.

  • Foreign policy and treaties

    Federal Constitution Art. 166: the Federal Assembly participates in shaping foreign policy and approves international treaties, except where the Federal Council is empowered to conclude them.

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Sources for what it can do

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Sources

  • fedlex.admin.ch · checked Federal Chancellery / Fedlex, Federal Constitution of the Swiss Confederation (SR 101), read 2026-10-12: existence, powers and composition of the Federal Assembly, National Council, Council of States, Federal Council and Federal Supreme Court (Art. 148-191); websites from parlament.ch, admin.ch, bk.admin.ch and bger.ch. For: Federal Assembly
  • fedlex.admin.ch · checked Federal Constitution (SR 101), read 2026-10-12, with admin.ch and parlament.ch descriptions. For: What it's for
  • fedlex.admin.ch · checked Federal Constitution (authentic German, French, Italian texts; Romansh translation), read 2026-10-12; party names from parlament.ch web service MemberCouncil (Party names, DE/FR), read 2026-10-12. For: Federal Assembly in French, Federal Assembly in German, Federal Assembly in Italian, Federal Assembly in Romansh
  • fedlex.admin.ch · checked Federal Constitution of the Swiss Confederation (SR 101), read 2026-10-12: the article cited in each description. For: Supreme authority of the Confederation, Legislation, Budget and finances, Elections and oversight, Foreign policy and treaties
  • fedlex.admin.ch · checked Federal Chancellery / Fedlex, Federal Constitution of the Swiss Confederation (SR 101), read 2026-10-12: sizes and selection of the offices (Art. 149, 150, 152, 168, 175, 176, 188). Federal Supreme Court size from Federal Supreme Court Act (SR 173.110) Art. 1. For: President of the National Council, Member of the National Council, President of the Council of States, Member of the Council of States
  • ws.parlament.ch · checked Federal Assembly, Parliament web service MemberCouncil / MemberCouncilHistory, read 2026-10-12: member, party, canton, start date (DateJoining); Federal Council start dates from contiguous MemberCouncilHistory entries; departments from admin.ch (Members of the Federal Council). For: Alois Huber as Member of the National Council, Aargau, Andreas Glarner as Member of the National Council, Aargau, Andreas Meier as Member of the National Council, Aargau, Barbara Portmann as Member of the National Council, Aargau, Benjamin Giezendanner as Member of the National Council, Aargau and 241 more
  • en.wikipedia.org · checked Presiding officer for 2025/26 from Wikipedia lists of presidents of the National Council and the Council of States, read 2026-10-12. Fallback: parlament.ch pages were unreachable (HTTP 404 on guessed URLs); cross-checked that the person is an active member in the parlament.ch MemberCouncil data. For: Pierre-André Page as President of the National Council, Stefan Engler as President of the Council of States
  • bk.admin.ch · checked Federal Chancellery, list of election dates (Droits politiques / Votes for the next 20 years): federal election 2027-10-24, as cited by Wikipedia List of elections in 2027, read 2026-10-12. Fallback: the Chancellery page itself returned HTTP 404 on 2026-10-12, so the date is not confirmed directly from the official page. For: General election, October 24, 2027

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