Walter Thurnherr Energy and Communications in 2011 as her chief of staff. He stood for election to succeed Corina Casanova as Federal Chancellor of Switzerland on 9 December 2015, as the first unopposed candidate in ninety years, and was elected by the Swiss Federal Assembly with 230 votes (out of 234 possible). He assumed office on 1 January 2016. Walter Thurnherr Walter Thurnherr (born 11 July 1963) is the Federal Chancellor of Switzerland since 1 January 2016. Born in Muri, Thurnherr graduated as a physicist at the ETH Zürich. In 1989, he joined the ranks of Switzerland's diplomatic corps. In 2002, he
2015 Swiss Federal Council election of voting. Guy Parmelin (SVP) was elected to the Federal Council after three rounds of voting. 2015 Swiss Federal Council election An election for all seven members of the Federal Council, the government of Switzerland, was held on 9 December 2015, following the federal election on 19 October 2015. Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf, a member of the Conservative Democratic Party (BDP), announced she would not run for re-election after the Swiss People's Party (SVP) won a record 29.4% of the vote, while her own party received 4.1% of the vote. The SVP was widely expected to fill her seat in the election,