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
Federal Council (Switzerland) in the Canton of Zürich. In the 2010 election, the two new Councillors Simonetta Sommaruga and Johann Schneider-Ammann were both from the Canton of Bern. The language makeup of the Council as of 2017 is four German speakers, two French speakers, and one Italian speaker. In November 2017, Ignazio Cassis became the first Italian speaker to serve on the Council since 1999. Each year, one of the seven Councillors is elected by the United Federal Assembly as "President of the Confederation". The Federal Assembly also elects a Vice President. By convention, the positions of President and Vice President rotate annually,