Editing Winterthur (section)

==Politics==
[[File:Winterthur Stadthaus.jpg|thumb|City hall, designed by architect [[Gottfried Semper]]]]

===Subdivisions===
Winterthur has seven city districts ({{langx|de|link=no|Stadtkreise}}):
1 – Winterthur-Stadt, 2 – Oberwinterthur, 3 – Seen, 4 – Töss, 5 – Veltheim, 6 – Wülflingen, 7 – Mattenbach

===Government===
The City Council ('''Stadtrat''') constitutes the executive government of the City of Winterthur and operates as a [[collegiate authority]]. It is composed of seven councilors ({{langx|de|link=no|Stadtrat/ Stadträtin}}), each presiding over a department. Departmental tasks, coordination measures and implementation of laws decreed by the Large Municipal Council are carried by the City Council. In the mandate period 2018–2022 (''Legislatur'') the City Council is presided by ''Stadtpräsident'' [[Michael Künzle]]. The regular election of the City Council by any inhabitant valid to vote is held every four years. Any resident of Winterthur allowed to vote can be elected as a member of the City Council. The mayor is elected as such by public election by means of a system of [[Majorz]], while the heads of the other directorates are assigned by the collegiate. The delegates are elected by means of a system of Majorz.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://stadt.winterthur.ch/gemeinde/politik/stadtrat |title=Stadtrat |publisher=Stadt Winterthur |type=official site |language=de |location=Winterthur, Switzerland |date=30 May 2018 |access-date=2018-06-30}}</ref>

{{As of|2018}}, Winterthur's City Council is made up of three representatives of the SP ([[Social Democratic Party of Switzerland|Social Democratic Party]]), one member of the FDP ([[FDP.The Liberals]]), one of the GPS ([[Green Party of Switzerland|Green Party]]), one of the GLP ([[Green Liberal Party of Switzerland|Green Liberal Party]]), and one of the CVP ([[Christian Democratic People's Party of Switzerland|Christian Democratic People's Party]], who is also the mayor), giving the left parties a combined four out of seven seats. The last regular election was held on 5 March and 15 April 2018,<ref name=wahlen18/> the last special election on 23 August 2020.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Stadtrat Winterthur: Neue Departementsverteilung — Stadt Winterthur|url=https://stadt.winterthur.ch/gemeinde/verwaltung/stadtkanzlei/kommunikation-stadt-winterthur/medienmitteilungen-stadt-winterthur/stadtrat-winterthur-neue-departementsverteilung-1|access-date=2020-11-11|website=stadt.winterthur.ch}}</ref>
{|class="wikitable"
|+ ''Stadtrat'' of Winterthur<ref name=wahlen18/>
! City Councillor<br />(Stadtrat/ Stadträtin) !! Party !! Department head of !! elected since
|-
| '''[[Michael Künzle]]'''<ref group=CC>Mayor (''Stadtpräsident'')</ref> || {{Color box|{{party color|Christian Democratic People's Party of Switzerland}}|border=darkgray}} CVP || Culture and Administration (''Kulturelles und Dienste'', 2012) || 2012
|-
| [[Christa Meier (Winterthur)|Christa Meier]]<ref group=CC>Vice Mayor (''Vizepräsidentin'')</ref> || {{Color box|{{party color|Social Democratic Party of Switzerland}}|border=darkgray}} SP || Civil Engineering and Construction (''Bau'', 2018) || 2018
|-
| [[Kaspar Bopp]]|| {{Color box|{{party color|Social Democratic Party of Switzerland}}|border=darkgray}} SP || Finances (''Finanzen'', Oct 2019) || 2019
|-
| [[Stefan Fritschi]]|| {{Color box|{{party color|FDP.The Liberals}}|border=darkgray}} FDP || Industrial Facilities (''Technische Betriebe'', 2017) || 2010
|-
| [[Nicolas Galladé]]|| {{Color box|{{party color|Social Democratic Party of Switzerland}}|border=darkgray}} SP || Social Services (''Soziales'', 2010) || 2010
|-
| [[Jürg Altweg]]|| {{Color box|{{party color|Green Party of Switzerland}}|border=darkgray}} GPS || Education and Sport (''Schule und Sport'', 2017) || 2017
|-
| [[Katrin Cometta]]|| {{Color box|{{party color|Green Liberal Party of Switzerland}}|border=darkgray}} GLP || Security and Environment (Sicherheit und Umwelt, 2020) || 2020
|}

{{reflist|group=CC}}

Ansgar Simon is Town Chancellor (''Stadtschreiber'') since 2016 and Marcel Wendelspiess is Legal Counsel (''Rechtskonsulent'') since 2013 for the City Council.

===Parliament===
{{Pie chart
| thumb =right
| caption =The ''Grosse Gemeinderat'' of Winterthur for the mandate period of 2018–2022
| other  =
| label1 =AL
| value1 ={{#expr: 2/(60/100) round 1}}
| color1 ={{party color|Alternative List}}
| label2 =Piraten
| value2 ={{#expr: 1/(60/100) round 1}}
| color2 ={{party color|Pirate Party Switzerland}}
| label3 =SP
| value3 ={{#expr: 18/(60/100) round 1}}
| color3 ={{party color|Social Democratic Party of Switzerland}}
| label4 =GPS
| value4 ={{#expr: 5/(60/100) round 1}}
| color4 ={{party color|Green Party of Switzerland}}
| label5 =glp
| value5 ={{#expr: 7/(60/100) round 1}}
| color5 ={{party color|Green Liberal Party of Switzerland}}
| label6 =EVP
| value6 ={{#expr: 4/(60/100) round 1}}
| color6 ={{party color|Evangelical People's Party of Switzerland}}
| label7 =CVP
| value7 ={{#expr: 3/(60/100) round 1}}
| color7 ={{party color|Christian Democratic People's Party of Switzerland}}
| label8 =FDP
| value8 ={{#expr: 8/(60/100) round 1}}
| color8 ={{party color|FDP.The Liberals}}
| label9 =BDP
| value9 ={{#expr: 1/(60/100) round 1}}
| color9 ={{party color|Conservative Democratic Party of Switzerland}}
| label10 =SVP
| value10 ={{#expr: 10/(60/100) round 1}}
| color10 ={{party color|Swiss People's Party}}
| label11 =EDU
| value11 ={{#expr: 1/(60/100) round 1}}
| color11 ={{party color|Federal Democratic Union of Switzerland}}
}}

The Large Municipal Council ('''Grosser Gemeinderat''') holds [[legislative power]]. It is made up of 60 members, with elections held every four years. The Large Municipal Council decrees regulations and by-laws that are executed by the City Council and the administration. The delegates are selected by means of a system of [[proportional representation]] (Proporz).

The sessions of the Large Municipal Council are public. Unlike members of the City Council, members of the Large Municipal Council are not politicians by profession, and they are paid a fee based on their attendance. Any resident of Winterthur allowed to vote can be elected as a member of the Large Municipal Council. The parliament holds its meetings in the ''Rathaus'' once a month on Mondays.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://gemeinderat.winterthur.ch/de/willkommen/ |title=Grosser Gemeinderat Winterthur |publisher=Grosser Gemeinderat Winterthur |type=official site |location=Winterthur, Switzerland |language=de |access-date=2018-06-30}}</ref>

The last regular election of the Large Municipal Council was held on 8 March 2018 for the mandate period ({{langx|de|link=no|Legislatur}}) from May 2018 to April 2022. Currently the Large Municipal Council consists of 18 members of the [[Social Democratic Party of Switzerland|Social Democratic Party (SP/PS)]], 10 [[Swiss People's Party|Swiss People's Party (SVP/UDC)]], 8 [[FDP.The Liberals|The Liberals (FDP/PLR)]], 7 [[Green Liberal Party of Switzerland|Green Liberal Party (GLP/PVL)]], 5 [[Green Party of Switzerland|Green Party (GPS/PES)]], 4 [[Evangelical People's Party of Switzerland|Evangelical People's Party (EVP)]], 3 [[Christian Democratic People's Party of Switzerland|Christian Democratic People's Party (CVP/PDC)]], 2 [[Alternative List|Alternative List (AL)]], one representative each of the [[Conservative Democratic Party of Switzerland|Conservative Democratic Party (BDP/PBD)]], [[Federal Democratic Union of Switzerland|Federal Democratic Union (EDU/UDF)]], and the [[Pirate Party Switzerland|Pirate Party]].<ref name=wahlen18>{{cite web |url=http://wahlen.winterthur.ch/detail/vote-action/detail/vote-controller/ProportionalElection/vote-election/13/vote-import/31/vote-year/2018/vote-referrer/12/ |title=Erneuerungswahl des Grossen Gemeinderates|publisher=Stadt Winterthur |type=official site |location=Winterthur, Switzerland |language=de |access-date=2018-06-30}}</ref>

===National elections===

====National Council====
In the [[2019 Swiss federal election|2019 federal election]] for the [[National Council (Switzerland)|Swiss National Council]] the most popular party was the [[Social Democratic Party of Switzerland|PS]] which received 22.6% (−3.4) of the vote. The next six most popular parties were the [[Swiss People's Party|SVP]] (17.8%, -5.6), the [[Green Party of Switzerland|Green Party]] (17.8%, +9), the [[Green Liberal Party of Switzerland|glp]] (14.3%, +5.5), [[FDP.The Liberals|FDP]] (10.6%, -1.5), the [[Evangelical People's Party of Switzerland|EVP]] (5.0%, 0), and the [[Christian Democratic People's Party of Switzerland|CVP]] (4.2%, +0.2).<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.bfs.admin.ch/bfsstatic/dam/assets/9386461/appendix |title=NR – Ergebnisse Parteien (Gemeinden) (INT1) |format=CSV |editor=Swiss Federal Statistical Office, FSO |type=official statistics |publisher=Swiss Federal Statistical Office, FSO |via=opendata.swiss |location=Neuchâtel, Switzerland |date=28 November 2019 |language=de, fr, it |access-date=2020-05-18}}</ref> In the federal election a total of 32,907 votes were cast, and the [[voter turnout]] was 47.0%.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.bfs.admin.ch/bfsstatic/dam/assets/9386463/appendix |title=NR – Wahlbeteiligung (Gemeinden) (INT1) |format=CSV |editor=Swiss Federal Statistical Office, FSO |type=official statistics |via=opendata.swiss  |publisher=Swiss Federal Statistical Office, FSO |location=Neuchâtel, Switzerland |date=28 November 2019 |language=de, fr, it |access-date=2020-05-18}}</ref>

In the 2015 election for the [[National Council (Switzerland)|Swiss National Council]] the most popular party was the [[Social Democratic Party of Switzerland|SPS]] which received 26.1% of the vote. The next most popular parties were the [[Swiss People's Party|SVP]] (23.4%), the [[FDP.The Liberals|FDP]] (12.1%), the [[Green Party of Switzerland|Green Party]] (8.8%), the [[Green Liberal Party of Switzerland|glp]] (8.8%), the [[Evangelical People's Party of Switzerland|EVP]] (5.0%), the [[Christian Democratic People's Party of Switzerland|CVP]] (4.0%), and [[Conservative Democratic Party of Switzerland|BDP]] (3.5%). In the federal election, a total of 33,426 voters were cast, and the voter turnout was 49.3%.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.bfs.admin.ch/bfs/de/home/statistiken/kataloge-datenbanken/tabellen.assetdetail.317521.html |title=Nationalratswahlen 2015: Stärke der Parteien und Wahlbeteiligung nach Gemeinden |newspaper=Bundesamt für Statistik |format=XLS |type=official statistics |publisher=Swiss Federal Statistical Office |location=Neuchâtel, Switzerland |date=9 March 2016 |language=de, fr |access-date=2018-06-30|last1=Statistik |first1=Bundesamt für }}</ref>
In the 2011, [[Elections in Switzerland|federal election]] the most popular party was the SP which received 22.5% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the SVP (21.8%), the [[Green Liberal Party of Switzerland|Green Liberals]] (11.1%) and the Green Party (10.1%).

===International relations===
{{See also|List of twin towns and sister cities in Switzerland}}

==== Twin towns ====
Winterthur is [[Sister city|twinned]] with two Swiss and two international towns and coordinates its international relations together with the Swiss towns [[Frauenfeld]], [[St. Gallen]], and [[Schaffhausen]]:<ref name=winterthur>{{cite web |title=Städtepartnerschaften|url=https://stadt.winterthur.ch/themen/die-stadt/winterthur/aussenbeziehungen/staedtepartnerschaften|publisher=Winterthur|language=de|access-date=2024-12-22}}</ref>
* {{flagicon|SUI}} [[Yverdon-les-Bains]], Switzerland
* {{flagicon|SUI}} [[La Chaux-de-Fonds]], Switzerland
* {{flagicon|CZE}} [[Plzeň]], Czech Republic
* {{flagicon|AUT}} [[Hall in Tirol]], Austria

====Namesake====
The community of [[Winterthur, Delaware|Winterthur]] in [[Delaware]], US, is named after the city.