Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf

Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf (2011)

Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf (back, second position from left) in the official Federal Council photo 2015

Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf (born March 16, 1956 in Felsberg ; entitled to live in Felsberg and Mönchaltorf ) is a Swiss politician ( BDP , SVP until June 2008 ). In 2012 she was President of the Swiss Confederation for one year .

From January 1, 2008, she was a member of the Federal Council and head of the Federal Department of Finance (FDF). Until October 2010 she was Head of the Federal Department of Justice and Police (FDJP). In 2011 Widmer-Schlumpf held the office of Vice President. On December 14, 2011, Widmer-Schlumpf was elected President 2012 by the United Federal Assembly. On October 28, 2015, she announced her resignation; on December 9, 2015 , her successor, Guy Parmelin ( SVP ), was elected. She has been President of the Pro Senectute since April 1, 2017 .

Education, job and private life

Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf attended the Bündner Kantonsschule in Chur , which she graduated with a type B Matura in 1976 . She then studied at the University of Zurich Law and laid in 1981 the licentiate from. This was followed by the Graubünden bar license in 1983 , the Graubünden notarial license in 1986 and in 1990 the doctorate at the University of Zurich. From 1987 to 1998 Widmer-Schlumpf worked as a lawyer and notary. Widmer-Schlumpf is the daughter of the former Federal Councilor Leon Schlumpf and his wife Gertrud Schlumpf-Rupp. She grew up in Felsberg, where she still lives today. Her husband is a civil engineer and they have three children together.

Political career until 2007

In 1985 Widmer-Schlumpf was elected to the District Court of Trin ( District Court ), from 1991 to 1997 she presided over it. Between 1989 and 1998 she was Vice President of SVP Graubünden. From 1994 to 1998 she was a member of the Grand Council of the Canton of Graubünden. On March 15, 1998, she was elected as the first woman to the government council of the canton of Graubünden, she took over the management of the finance and military department and was elected regional president in 2001 and 2005.

From September 2001 until she took office in the Federal Council, she was President of the Conference of Cantonal Finance Directors. In this role, the media ascribes a significant role to her in that eleven cantons held a referendum against the federal tax package in 2003 , the first cantonal referendum in the history of the Swiss federal state. The tax package was rejected in the referendum - in line with the referendum intention.

From May 2004 to the end of 2007, Widmer-Schlumpf was a member of the Bank Council of the Swiss National Bank , and from March 2007 she was Vice-President.

Federal Council

choice

In the general elections of the Federal Council on 12 December 2007 Widmer-Schlumpf was approved by the Federal Assembly , instead of the current Federal and official candidate of the SVP Christoph Blocher in the second ballot in the Bundesrat voted. With a required absolute majority of 122 votes, she received 125 votes, Christoph Blocher 115. Her election came as a surprise. Before the election, the parties presented their intentions as follows: The Social Democratic Party announced on the morning of the election that its parliamentary group would vote for Widmer-Schlumpf, while the CVP / EPP / glp group announced in advance that the majority of its members would be Christoph Do not support Blocher. The Greens had set up Luc Recordon as their own candidate, but he withdrew in favor of Widmer-Schlumpf. The FDP and SVP parliamentary groups officially supported Christoph Blocher.

With the election of Widmer-Schlumpf, a woman from the ranks of the SVP was elected for the first time as Federal Councilor, and for the first time three women were represented in the Swiss Federal Council at the same time. After Eugène Luffy, she is the second member of the Federal Council whose father was already on the Federal Council. On December 8, 2010, she was elected Vice-President of the Federal Council.

The SVP attacked Widmer-Schlumpf's seat in the 2011 Federal Council elections without success and was confirmed in office with 131 votes in the first ballot.

Position of the SVP

The SVP party president, Ueli Maurer , described Widmer-Schlumpf in the run-up to the National Council elections in 2003 , when it came to a second SVP seat in the Federal Council, as "a very good candidate, one of the most competent politicians in this country".

Before the 2007 Federal Council elections, the SVP parliamentary group leadership announced that it would «expel» any SVP member who accepted an election without being nominated by the SVP parliamentary group. This means that it cannot count on the support of the group and cannot attend their meetings. Widmer-Schlumpf had one day to decide whether to accept or reject the election and on the morning of December 13, 2007, declared that she would accept the election. The parliamentary group leadership accused Widmer-Schlumpf of “betrayal” of their own party.

Widmer-Schlumpf said in various interviews that she originally wanted to reject the election, but then changed her mind in order to save the SVP's seat in the Federal Council. In addition, it had become clear that the remaining Federal Councilor of the SVP, Samuel Schmid , would also be expelled from the parliamentary group in response to Blocher's vote if he did not resign. A documentary on Swiss television tried to show how the election of the Federal Councilor came about.

Exclusion from SVP Switzerland

A legal opinion commissioned by SVP Switzerland showed that the party cannot exclude any individual, as party membership in the SVP is regulated by the cantonal sections. The nationwide party can only exclude one cantonal party as a whole. On April 4, 2008, the central board of SVP Switzerland called on Widmer-Schlumpf to resign from the Federal Council and the SVP immediately. If Widmer-Schlumpf does not resign, SVP Graubünden has to expel her by April 30, 2008, otherwise SVP Switzerland wants to exclude the Cantonal Party of Graubünden. Widmer-Schlumpf and the entire Federal Council rejected the demands, just as the management and the delegates' assembly of SVP Graubünden refused to expel Widmer-Schlumpf.

On April 11, 2008, over 12,000 people took part in a sympathy rally for Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf and a demonstration for more respect for political institutions on the Bundesplatz in Bern, which various women's associations led by Alliance F had called for.

On June 1, 2008, the central board of SVP Switzerland excluded SVP Graubünden from SVP Switzerland, whereupon a large part of SVP Graubünden reoriented itself and constituted itself as the Graubünden Civil Democratic Party .

resignation

On October 28, 2015, Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf announced her resignation from the state government at the end of 2015. As a result, she no longer stood in the general election of the Federal Council on December 9, 2015.

Awards

Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf won the SwissAward in the Politics category on January 10, 2009 and was voted Swiss Woman of the Year 2008 in an audience vote. In addition, in 2008 she was the first recipient of the Arosa Humor Shovel, a jury award from the Arosa Humor Festival .

Documentation

• Hansjürg Zumstein : The election - the secret operation against Christoph Blocher. In: Schweizer Fernsehen , DOK of March 6, 2008 (50 minutes).
• Hansjürg Zumstein: The Resignation - The Widmer-Schlumpf era. In: SRF 1 , DOK from March 31, 2016 (50 minutes).
• The 7 federal councilors. In: SRF 1 , DOK of November 29, 2018 (50 min) ( video excerpts ).

Publications

• Requirements for the license for radio and television. Helbing and Lichtenhahn, Basel / Frankfurt am Main 1990, ISBN 3-7190-1157-7 (= new literature on law , also dissertation at the University of Zurich 1990).

literature

• Esther Girsberger : Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf. The steadfast one. Orell Füssli, Zurich 2011, ISBN 978-3-280-06124-4 .
• Andrea Hämmerle : The election - facts and figures. Rüegger, Glarus / Chur 2011, ISBN 978-3-7253-0981-8 .
• Adolf Collenberg: Widmer [-Schlumpf], Eveline. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland .
• Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf in the Munzinger archive ( beginning of article freely accessible)

Web links

Further content in the sister projects of Wikipedia:
	Commons	- multimedia content
	Wikinews	- News

• Literature by and about Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf in the catalog of the German National Library
• Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf at the Federal Department of Finance FDF. ( Memento from December 21, 2015 in the Internet Archive )
• Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf on admin.ch
• Adolf Collenberg: Widmer [-Schlumpf], Eveline. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland .
• Giovanni di Lorenzo : “I like to be boring” Interview in: Die Zeit 46/2012 from November 8, 2012.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Handover of the baton on the 100th anniversary: ​​Widmer-Schlumpf leads Pro Senectute into the future , on aargauerzeitung.ch
2. ^ Adolf Collenberg: Schlumpf, Leon. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland .
3. ↑ Christian Wanner becomes the new President of the Conference of Financial Directors (FDK) ( Memento from January 19, 2012 in the Internet Archive ), media release of the Conference of Financial Directors from January 25, 2008
4. ↑ The NZZ [1] and the Tages-Anzeiger page can no longer be accessed , search in web archives: call them the “driving force” of the cantonal referendum, according to Blick they “orchestrated” the cantonal referendum archive link ( memento from April 23, 2008 in the Internet Archive )
5. ^ Rita Fuhrer elected to the SNB Bank Council. Retrieved November 30, 2019 .  , on admin.ch
6. ↑ Personnel changes in the SNB Bank Council , on admin.ch
7. ↑ Election results of the 2007 Federal Council elections ( Memento from January 18, 2012 in the Internet Archive )
8. ↑ Widmer-Schlumpf elected Vice President in: NZZ Online from December 8, 2010
9. ↑ The SVP is looking for combat candidates. In: NZZ am Sonntag . July 13, 2003.
10. ↑ According to the Swiss Parliament Act ( Art. 61, Para. 1) , an actual exclusion is impossible, since only parliamentarians (“council members”) can be members of a parliamentary group.
11. ↑ Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf says yes. (No longer available online.) Search.ch, archived from the original on December 11, 2011 ; Retrieved December 13, 2007 . 
12. ↑ She actually did it. taz.de, December 14, 2007, accessed on November 18, 2011 . 
13. ^ “I wanted to save the SVP headquarters” , NZZ Online December 16, 2007
14. ↑ Hansjürg Zumstein : The election - The secret operation against Christoph Blocher. In: Schweizer Fernsehen , DOK from March 6, 2008 (50 minutes)
15. ↑ Central Board confirms exclusion request. Retrieved November 30, 2019 .  , SVP press release, accessed April 5, 2008
16. ↑ General Federal Council supports Widmer-Schlumpf ( memento of April 7, 2008 in the Internet Archive ), Tages-Anzeiger , April 3, 2008.
17. ↑ SVP Graubünden does not rule out Widmer-Schlumpf ( Memento from April 17, 2008 in the Internet Archive ), Kleine Zeitung , April 10, 2008
18. ^ No exclusion from party by Widmer-Schlumpf , NZZ Online, April 23, 2008
19. ↑ Widmer-Schlumpf thanks in front of 12,000 people , NZZ Online, April 11, 2008
20. ^ SVP Switzerland excludes Graubünden section , NZZ Online, June 2, 2008
21. ^ The Federal Department of Finance (FDF). Federal Council , October 29, 2015, accessed on November 10, 2015 . 
22. ↑ Federal Councilor Widmer-Schlumpf is Swiss of the Year 2008. In: Tages-Anzeiger .net / Newsnet from January 10, 2009
23. ↑ «I wrote her that her name was hot». In: Tages-Anzeiger from November 15, 2011

predecessor	Office	successor
Christoph Blocher	Member of the Swiss Federal Council 2008–2015	Guy Parmelin