Editing Switzerland (section)

=== Federal Council ===
[[File:Gruppenbild Bundesrat 2025 II.jpg|thumb|The [[Swiss Federal Council]] in 2024 (from left to right): [[Viktor Rossi]] ([[Chancellor of Switzerland|Federal chancellor]]), [[Ignazio Cassis]], [[Beat Jans]], [[Karin Keller-Sutter]] ([[President of the Swiss Confederation|President]] in 2025), [[Élisabeth Baume-Schneider]], [[Guy Parmelin]], [[Martin Pfister]], and [[Albert Rösti]]]]
The Federal Council is the Swiss executive. It leads the [[Federal administration of Switzerland|federal administration]] and serves as a collective [[head of state]]. It is a [[Collegiality|collegial]] body of seven members, elected to four-year terms by the Federal Assembly, which oversees the council. Each member leads a department of the federal government. Each year, one member of the Council is elected [[President of the Swiss Confederation|President of the Confederation]] by the Assembly, with the presidency traditionally rotating between members. The President chairs and represents the government, but has [[Primus inter pares|no additional powers]] and remains the head of their department.<ref name="Politics" />

The government has been a coalition of the four major political parties since 1959, each party having a number of seats that roughly reflects its share of the electorate and representation in the federal parliament. This distribution is called the "[[Magic formula (Swiss politics)|magic formula]]". Since 2003, the seven seats in the Federal Council have been distributed as follows:

* 1 seat for [[The Centre (political party)|The Centre]]{{Efn|Formerly the Christian Democratic People's Party (CVP/PCD), which merged with the BDP party to form the Centre party in 2019|name=The Centre}}
* 2 seats for the [[Free Democratic Party of Switzerland|Free Democratic Party]] (FDP/PRD)
* 2 seats for the [[Social Democratic Party of Switzerland|Social Democratic Party]] (SP/PS)
* 2 seats for the [[Swiss People's Party]] (SVP/UDC){{Efn|The [[Conservative Democratic Party of Switzerland|Conservative Democratic Party]]  held both SVP seats from 2003 to 2008, and continued to hold one SVP seat until 2015. |name=BDP}}
[[File:Tribunal Federal - wide.jpg|thumb|[[Federal Supreme Court of Switzerland]] building in [[Lausanne]]]]