Vice-Chancellor of Switzerland Oswald Sigg was named successor to Vice-Chancellor and Federal Council spokesman Achille Casanova. With Federal Chancellor Annemarie Huber-Hotz and the other Vice-Chancellorship conferred to Corina Casanova (no relationship to Achille Casanova), the three key roles in the Federal Chancellery were held by Swiss Germans. Remarkably enough, though, when Corinna Casanova was elected Federal Chancellor three years later, the nomination of Thomas Helbling as her successor, another Swiss German, raised no such public criticism. At the time, the "Tages-Anzeiger" speculated that this might be due to the Latin cantons aiming for the post of Oswald Sigg, due to retire a bit
2007 Swiss Federal Council election Couchepin was elected President of the Swiss Confederation for 2008, and Hans-Rudolf Merz, instead of Blocher, was elected Vice President of the Federal Council for 2008. As a result of the non-election of their official candidate Christoph Blocher, the People's Party declared itself an opposition party and excluded its nominal representatives on the Federal Council, Samuel Schmid and Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf, from its parliamentary group. In the 2007 Swiss federal elections, the SVP expanded their share of votes again, mostly at the expense of the Social Democrats (SPS). Christoph Blocher, the "de facto" leader of the SVP, had become embroiled in