On 28 June 1997 Ursula Koch was elected by the members of the SP Switzerland at an extraordinary party congress in Thun, and won, despite lack of political experience at the national level, against Andrea Hämmerle, and succeeded the popular but controversy longyear SP president Peter Bodenmann. From 1997 to April 2000, Ursula Koch was the president of the SP, even being the first women president of the national section of the Swiss social democratic party (SP).
