Three Fribourg candidates win cantonal government seats in first round, four go to runoff

Three government seats filled on the first ballot

Voters in the canton of Fribourg elected three of the seven Council of State members on Sunday, 8 November, in the first round. The two incumbent FDP councillors, Romain Collaud and Didier Castella, passed the absolute majority with 55.9% and 55.35% of the vote, and SRF reports that each gathered more than 43,000 votes. Marie-France Roth Pasquier, a Centre (Mitte) national councillor, took third place with 53.06% and also won a seat outright. Turnout reached 36.09%.

The Entente holds the top five places

The Entente fribourgeoise, an alliance of the Centre, FDP and SVP, placed its five candidates in the first five positions. Markus Julmy of the Centre, the German-speaking candidate, reached 48.41%, and SVP incumbent Philippe Demierre took 46.89%, both short of the absolute majority. The Alliance de gauche filled places six to ten. Social Democrat Lise-Marie Graden led the left with 43.89%, ahead of Green incumbent Sylvie Bonvin-Sansonnens on 41.23%. No left-wing candidate has been elected yet.

Romain Collaud (FDP)55.9%

Didier Castella (FDP)55.35%

Marie-France Roth Pasquier (Mitte)53.06%

Markus Julmy (Mitte)48.41%

Philippe Demierre (SVP)46.89%

Lise-Marie Graden (SP)43.89%

Sylvie Bonvin-Sansonnens (Greens)41.23%

Romain Collaud (FDP)

55.9 %

Didier Castella (FDP)

55.35 %

Marie-France Roth Pasquier (Mitte)

53.06 %

Markus Julmy (Mitte)

48.41 %

Philippe Demierre (SVP)

46.89 %

Lise-Marie Graden (SP)

43.89 %

Sylvie Bonvin-Sansonnens (Greens)

41.23 %

Data from the article text

Four seats and the outgoing councillors

Four of the seven seats remain open, and a second round is scheduled for 29 November. Three incumbents are not standing again: Centre councillors Jean-Pierre Siggen and Olivier Curty, and Social Democrat Jean-François Steiert. Before the vote, the executive comprised five centre-right members (two Centre, two FDP and one SVP) and two from the left (one socialist and one Green), according to Keystone-ATS. Blick notes that the German-speaking minority, about a quarter of the canton's population, does not yet know whether it will regain two seats in the government. The final results of the cantonal parliament elections were expected early in the evening.

What the SRF correspondent sees

SRF Fribourg correspondent Oliver Kempa wrote that the joint list of Centre, FDP and SVP had paid off, since three of the seven seats were secured on the first ballot. He pointed out that Demierre drew the fewest voters from the other two parties, so he must run again despite his incumbency.

“The SVP has the hardest time in this alliance.”

Kempa added that the second round is far from decided, that no left-wing candidate has been elected yet, and that the centre-right must motivate its own voters to avoid losing a seat.

Prefect races in the districts

Seven prefect posts were also filled on Sunday, and none of the leading candidates in the Sarine, Lac and Singine districts reached an absolute majority. In Sarine, Centre candidate Christophe Maillard, a former syndic of Marly, led with 23%, ahead of Social Democrat David Bonny on 21.4% and FDP candidate Gaël Gobet, the district's justice of the peace, on 14%. In Singine, former elite police officer Adrian Leuthard, standing for the SP, finished second in the first round and is expected to face Bojan Seewer of the Centre in the runoff. The Broye, Glâne, Gruyère and Veveyse districts largely re-elected their incumbents.