What Swiss political offices can naturalised foreign citizens run for?

For all legal intents and purposes, once a foreigner is naturalised, he or she becomes Swiss with all the rights, privileges, and obligations this entails.

At least in theory.

There have been occasional glitches in this regard, including from official government entities.

For instance, the law requires that candidates for naturalisation must submit letters of reference from Swiss citizens.

Several years ago, one such applicant did so, but since the people who wrote the letters were naturalised and had foreign names, the Sate Secretariat for Migration (SEM) told the applicant that those who are vouching for her should be “Swiss by descent” – in other words, indigenous, rather than naturalised.

SEM eventually admitted the error but in the meantime the right-wing Swiss People’s Party (SVP) defended this approach.

“It is obvious that one should not cite newly naturalised individuals as references,” the party’s MP, Pascal Schmid, said .

However, Barbara von Rütte, professor of migration law at the University of Bern, believes that this practice does indeed constitute a violation of the principle of equal treatment of citizens.

 

READ MORE: Switzerland accused of discrimination towards naturalised citizens 

What does the law say?

The Swiss Nationality Act clearly distinguishes between acquisition of nationality “by descent” – that is – transmitted at birth if at least one parent is Swiss – and acquisition “by naturalisation.”

However, the law does not establish any difference in rights between Swiss citizens by descent and naturalised ones.

Once nationality is obtained, all Swiss citizens are equal before the law (according to Art. 8 of the Constitution).

The Constitution also expressly prohibits all forms of discrimination, including that based on the method of acquiring nationality.

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So, can a naturalised citizen become the president of Switzerland?

Before we get to that top position, let’s look at the elected offices from bottom up – the grassroots approach that Switzerland’s democracy is known for.

Municipal and cantonal offices

Yes, naturalised citizens – and that includes those who have dual nationality – can run for, and be elected to these local and regional posts, including city councils and cantonal Parliaments.

They are not obligated to reveal that they obtained Swiss citizenship through naturalisation.

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Federal Parliament

Here too, naturalised and dual nationals are treated the same as Swiss-born citizens.

Hard-right SVP deputies have, however, been attempting to ban dual nationals – which means people who obtained Swiss citizenship through naturalisation – from the Parliament, on the grounds that they “don’t represent Switzerland’s best interests.”

There had even been a widely reported incident in fromt of the Parliament building in Bern in 2020, when SVP deputy Andreas Glarner insulted Green Party MP Sibel Arslan, who has both a Swiss and Turkish citizenship, telling her that Switzerland is a nation of law and order, “something that doesn’t exist in your country”.

READ MORE: Swiss politician’s call to ban dual citizens from becoming MPs sparks anger 

Nevertheless, dual citizens are still members of the Parliament, and the SVP’s efforts to ‘evict’ them from their seats got nowhere.

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What about the Federal Council?

Unlike the Parliament, where a number of deputies are naturalised, no Federal Council members in history had ever obtained citizenship this way.

But if any dual-national member of the Parliament would run for an empty Council  seat, nothing would prevent his or her fellow deputies from electing that person.

And that brings us back to the question of whether a naturalised citizen could become President of Switzerland..

The answer is yes – if their turn to hold that rotating role for one year comes up

READ MORE: Why does Switzerland’s president only serve one year?