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Switzerland in female hands

Economics Minister Doris Leuthard will be President of the Confederation for 2010. As the National Council and Council of States are also presided over by women, Switzerland’s three most senior offices will be held by women this year.

By René Lenzin

Doris Leuthard has risen rapidly through the ranks in her political career. She was elected as a Federal Councillor just 10 years after entering Aargau’s cantonal parliament. She was elected successor to Joseph Deiss on 14 June 2006 by the Federal Assembly, and she took over the leadership of the Federal Department of Economic Affairs on 1 August of the same year. The 46-year-old Christian Democrat (CVP) is the fifth woman in national government and the youngest President of the Confederation in the past 70 years.

Voters in Aargau first elected Leuthard to the National Council in 1999. Just two years later she became Vice President of the CVP Switzerland, and in 2004 she took over the party leadership. The CVP had previously lost votes constantly and, in December 2003, had to surrender one of its two Federal Council seats to the Swiss People’s Party (SVP). As leader, Leuthard hardly turned the CVP around, but she did manage to stem the loss of votes. Leuthard was a fresh, media-savvy politician looking to put the party back on the road to success with a social-liberal image.

Leuthard had an uneventful start as Economics Minister. But the financial and economic crises, the negative impact of which on Switzerland she (too) long disputed, spelt a more difficult period for her. She had to get a revision of in-deficit unemployment insurance through Parliament at a time of rising unemployment. By pressing for lower import prices and the free trade of agricultural goods, she also incurred the wrath of many farmers. Enraged farmers in French-speaking Switzerland threw boots at her last October. Leuthard is regarded as a competent but rather risk-averse politician. The qualified lawyer is married with no children.

The Federal Assembly elected Moritz Leuenberger (63) as Vice President of the Federal Council for 2010. The Social Democrat from Zurich, who was elected to national government in 1995, may become President of the Confederation for the third time in 2011.

After Ruth Dreifuss (1999) and Micheline Calmy-Rey (2007), Doris Leuthard is only the third woman to be elected as President of the Confederation.Women have presided over both chambers of Parliament on a slightly more frequent basis. Women will be in charge of both the National Council and the Council of States in 2010. As Switzerland’s most senior- ranking lady, 32-year-old Pascale Bruderer, a Social Democrat from Aargau, will lead the National Council, and Erika Forster, a 65-year-old Free Democrat from St. Gallen, will take charge of the Council of States. This means Switzerland’s three most senior offices will be held by women for the first time in the Confederation’s history.

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