Switzerland:Controversial billionaire businessman Christoph Blocher has been ousted from Switzerland's new cabinet after a revolt by the other political parties against his combative and populist style.
Four years after Mr Blocher shook up the consensual world of Swiss politics, his opponents voted to replace him in government yesterday with another politician from his right-wing Swiss People's Party (SVP).
After the 2003 election, when the SVP became Switzerland's largest political party, Mr Blocher demanded, and was given, a second seat in the cross-party cabinet system that has ruled the country since 1959.
The SVP increased its share of the vote to 29 per cent in October's election after a campaign focused on Mr Blocher, who served as justice minister, and an SVP proposal to deport foreigners who commit crimes.
Human rights groups attacked the proposal and the related poster campaign showing a white sheep kicking a black sheep off the Swiss flag.
After overwhelmingly negative international press coverage of the election, Switzerland's other politicians gave their verdict yesterday: Mr Blocher has to go.
A majority of deputies gave their votes to Mr Blocher's party colleague, regional politician Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf. She had not put herself forward for election and was not even in Bern when the result was announced, to loud cheers from everyone in parliament except SVP politicians. Ms Widmer-Schlumpf has said she will announce her decision this morning. "Of course this a completely new situation, everything's open at the moment," she told Swiss television.
The vote puts her, and the SVP, in an impossible position.
"Either we are in the government with Blocher or we're going into opposition," said SVP president Ueli Maurer after the vote.
If Ms Widmer-Schlumpf decides to ignore party leaders and enter cabinet, she faces being kicked out of her own party.
The revolt could have unpredictable consequences for Swiss politics: if the SVP enters the opposition, few doubt that party leaders would make effective use of Switzerland's direct democratic system and use referendums to blockade parliament.
Dominique de Buman, deputy leader of the Christian Democrats, said the result showed that Switzerland "had enough of attacks on democracy".
Switzerland's Social Democratic Party (SP) said that, with the vote, the parliament had done Switzerland "a great service".
"We stand by the concordance," said SP member Chantal Galladé. "But not all candidates are acceptable." Mr Blocher had, she said, "crossed lines in an intolerable way".