National Council of Switzerland

National Council Nationalrat  (German) Conseil national  (French) Consiglio nazionale  (Italian) Cussegl naziunal  (Romansh)
Type
Type	Lower house
Leadership
President	Jürg Stahl, SVP/UDC, ZH 28 Nov 2016 – 27 Nov 2017
First Vice President	Dominique de Buman, CVP/PDC, FR 28 Nov 2016 – 27 Nov 2017
Second Vice President	Marina Carobbio Guscetti, SP/PS, TI 28 Nov 2016 – 27 Nov 2017
Structure
Seats	200
Political groups	Government parties (168)      SVP/UDC 65      SP/PS 43      FDP/PLR 33      CVP/PDC 27 Other parliamentary parties (32)      Greens (GPS/PES) 11      BDP/PBD 7      GLP/PVL 7      EVP/PEV 2      LdT 2      MCG 1      PdA 1      CSP OW 1
Elections
Voting system	Party-list proportional representation Hagenbach-Bischoff system
Last election	18 October 2015
Meeting place
Federal Palace of Switzerland, Bern
Website
http://www.parliament.ch/

Government parties (168)

Other parliamentary parties (32)

The National Council (German: Nationalrat, French: Conseil national, Italian: Consiglio nazionale, Romansh: Cussegl naziunal) is the lower house of the Federal Assembly of Switzerland, the upper house being the Council of States. With 200 seats, the National Council is the larger of the two houses.

Adult citizens elect the council's members, who are called National Councillors for four year terms. These members are apportioned to the Swiss cantons in proportion to their population.

Both houses meet in the Federal Palace of Switzerland in Berne.

With 200 members, the National Council is the larger house of the Swiss legislature.

When the Swiss federation was founded in 1848, the number of seats was not yet fixed, but was determined by the population of the individual cantons. According to the provisions of the federal constitution at that time, a canton was to receive one National Council member for every 20,000 citizens. Thus, the first National Council, which met in 1848, had 111 members.

In 1963, the number of members was fixed at 200. The division of the seats between the individual cantons is determined by each canton's percentage of the national population, as revealed in the national census (including foreign residents), using the largest remainder method. A change in the division of the seats occurred in 2003, as a result of the 2000 census.

Every canton is entitled to at least one seat in the National Council.