In Swiss politics, the magic formula (German: Zauberformel, French: formule magique, Italian: formula magica) is an arithmetic formula for dividing the seven executive seats of the Swiss Federal Council between the four ruling parties. The formula was first applied in 1959. It gave the Free Democratic Party (now FDP.The Liberals), the Christian Democratic People's Party and the Social Democratic Party each two seats, while the Party of Farmers, Traders and Independents (now the Swiss People's Party) received one seat.
The formula is not an official law, but rather an agreement amongst the rather large coalition of four parties. After the 2003 general elections, the formula was modified, giving two seats to the SVP/UDC at the expense of the Christian Democrats. This was because the Swiss People's Party received 29% of the votes during the election of the parliament making it Switzerland's largest party by votes.
After the election of Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf to the federal council in Autumn 2007, she was expelled from the SVP/UDC, because she took the seat of Christoph Blocher, the unofficial leader of the SVP. The SVP's other councilor, Samuel Schmid followed her, as he, too, was no longer supported by his own party. They led the establishment of the new Conservative Democratic Party of Switzerland (BDP/PBD). Due to this change, the two seats from the SVP/UDC now belonged to the PDB, although it had only a handful of seats in the parliament.
On 12 November 2008, Schmid resigned from his post as Defense minister and was replaced in a vote that took place on 10 December 2008 by Ueli Maurer from the SVP/UDC, giving the party back one of its two magic formula seats.
Soon after the 2015 Swiss federal election, Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf, a member of the Conservative Democratic Party (BDP), announced she would not run for re-election on the Federal Council 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, and Guy Parmelin, of the SVP, was ultimately elected on December 9.
Current formula
This is the composition of the Federal Council after the 2015 Swiss Federal Council election.