Basel-Landschaft or Basel-Country,informally known as Baselland or Baselbiet,is one of the 26 cantons forming the Swiss Confederation. It is composed of five districts and its capital city is Liestal. It is traditionally considered a "half-canton",the other half being Basel-Stadt,its urban counterpart.
Basel-Stadt or Basel-City is one of the 26 cantons forming the Swiss Confederation. It is composed of three municipalities with Basel as the capital. It is traditionally considered a "half-canton",the other half being Basel-Landschaft,its rural counterpart.
The 26 cantons of Switzerland are the member states of the Swiss Confederation. The nucleus of the Swiss Confederacy in the form of the first three confederate allies used to be referred to as the Waldstätte. Two important periods in the development of the Old Swiss Confederacy are summarized by the terms Acht Orte and Dreizehn Orte.
Emil Johann Rudolf Frey was a Swiss politician,Union Army soldier in the American Civil War and member of the Swiss Federal Council (1890–1897). He served as President of the Swiss Confederation in 1894.
The Republic and Canton of Jura,less formally the Canton of Jura or Canton Jura,is the newest of the 26 Swiss cantons,located in the northwestern part of Switzerland. The capital is Delémont. It shares borders with the canton of Basel-Landschaft,the canton of Bern,the canton of Neuchatel,the canton of Solothurn,and the French régions of Bourgogne-Franche-Comtéand Grand Est.
The Council of States is the upper house of the Federal Assembly of Switzerland,and the lower house being the National Council. It comprises 46 members.
The Evangelical People's Party of Switzerland,Swiss Evangelical Party,or Evangelical Party of Switzerland is a Protestant Christian-democratic political party in Switzerland,active mainly in the Cantons of Bern,Basel-Land,Basel-Stadt,Aargau and Zürich. "Evangelical" translates as evangelisch,the German term for "Protestant",as opposed to "evangelical" as used in Anglo-Saxon Christianity.
Same-sex marriage has been legal in Switzerland since 1 July 2022. Legislation to open marriage to same-sex couples passed the Swiss Parliament in December 2020. The law was challenged in a referendum on 26 September 2021 by opponents of same-sex marriage and was approved with the support of 64% of voters and a majority in all 26 cantons. The law went into force on 1 July 2022. A provision of the law permitting same-sex marriages performed abroad to be recognised in Switzerland took effect on 1 January 2022. Switzerland was the seventeenth country in Europe and the 30th in the world to allow same-sex couples to marry.
Alain Berset is a Swiss politician who served as a Member of the Swiss Federal Council from 2012 to 2023. A member of the Social Democratic Party (SP/PS),he headed the Federal Department of Home Affairs from when he took office. Berset served as President of the Swiss Confederation for 2018 and 2023.
Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf is a Swiss politician and lawyer who served as a Member of the Swiss Federal Council from 2008 to 2015. A member of the Swiss People's Party (SVP/UDC) until 2008,she was then a member of the splinter Conservative Democratic Party (BDP/PBD) until 2021,when that party merged into The Centre. Widmer-Schlumpf was the head of the Federal Department of Justice and Police from 2008 to 2010,when she became head of the Federal Department of Finance. She served as President of the Swiss Confederation in 2012.
Women in Switzerland gained the right to vote in federal elections after a referendum in February 1971. The first federal vote in which women were able to participate was the 31 October 1971 election of the Federal Assembly. However it was not until a 1990 decision by the Federal Supreme Court of Switzerland that women gained full voting rights in the final Swiss canton of Appenzell Innerrhoden.
Sibel Arslan is a Turkish-born Swiss lawyer and politician who currently serves on the National Council (Switzerland) for the movement BastA!. There she concurrently also is a representative to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe since 2020. She previously served on the Grand Council of Basel-Stadt between 2005 and 2016.
Lisa Mazzone is a Swiss politician and president of the Green Party. She was elected to the Swiss parliament on 18 October 2015,becoming Switzerland's youngest member of parliament in the process. Most of her political interventions to date have involved environmental issues.
Marina Carobbio Guscetti is a Swiss politician of the Social Democratic Party of Switzerland (SP/PS) of which she has been the vice-chairwoman since 1 March 2008. She was the president of the National Council in 2018–2019 and became a Councillor of States in December 2019.
Susanne Leutenegger Oberholzer is a politician of the Social Democratic Party of Switzerland. She was a National Councillor from 1987 to 1991,then again from 1999 to 2018.
Elisabeth Schneider-Schneiter is a Swiss jurist and politician of The Centre.
Pascale Baeriswyl is a Swiss diplomat,Ambassador and currently Permanent Representative of Switzerland to the United Nations (UN) in New York. She was the first woman to hold the post of State Secretary of the Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs (FDFA) and has headed the Swiss Mission to the UN in New York since June 2020. From January 2023 to December 2024,Baeriswyl will represent Switzerland on the United Nations Security Council (UNSC),during the country's first ever term as an elected member of the council.
An election for all seven members of the Federal Council,Switzerland's government,were held on 13 December 2023 for the 2024–2028 term. It followed the federal election held a month earlier and partly depended on its results.
Judith Schmutz is a Swiss lawyer and politician who has served as president of the Cantonal Council of Lucerne since 2023. She is the youngest president of the council in the canton's history,and one of the youngest in all of Switzerland. She was first elected to serve on the council in 2019,and represents the Hochdorf District.
Hannah Pfalzgraf is a Swiss trade unionist and politician who has served in the Cantonal Council of Zürich since 2018 as a member of the Social Democratic Party. Taking office at the age of 20,she was the youngest-ever cantonal councillor in Zürich at the time. Pfalzgraf has also been co-president of the Trade Union Confederation of the Canton of Zurich since 2023.
