Alain Berset

Alain Berset (2013)

Alain Berset (born April 9, 1972 in Freiburg ; resident in Misery-Courtion ) is a Swiss politician ( SP ). He has been a Federal Councilor since 2012 and heads the Federal Department of Home Affairs (FDHA). In 2018, he was President of Switzerland.

Life, education, work

Berset spent his youth in Belfaux in the canton of Friborg .

He comes from a family of runners . His mother was runner-up in the Swiss marathon in 1987 , his father achieved 55 minutes in the Murten run , an uncle (Jean-Pierre, 5000 m ) and a cousin (Nicolas, 1500 m ) were runners at international level. At the age of 17, he became the French-speaking Swiss Junior Champion in the 800-meter run . Together with relatives, he set numerous club records that are still in existence today for his club, CA Belfaux.

He attended secondary school in Freiburg and studied at the University of Neuchâtel , where he completed his studies in 1996 with a degree in political science (Lic. Ès sc. Pol.) And in 2005 with a doctorate in economics.

From 1996 to 2000 he was an assistant and research assistant at the University of Neuchâtel and then until 2001 visiting researcher at the HWWA Institute for Economic Research in Hamburg . From 2006 he worked as an independent strategy and communications consultant.

He is married and has three children.

politics

Alain Berset comes from an SP family. His grandfather and mother were already serving at the cantonal level for the social democratic party. They both belonged to the Freiburg cantonal parliament, the Grand Council . From 2000 to 2004 Alain Berset was a member of the Constitutional Council of the Canton of Friborg, where he chaired the SP parliamentary group. From 2001 to 2003 he represented the SP in the General Council in Belfaux . He was also political advisor to Bernard Soguel, the Neuchâtel economics director .

In the 2003 elections , Berset was elected to the Council of States as the youngest member of the Small Chamber as the representative of the Canton of Friborg . In the second ballot he prevailed against the previous professional representative, Jean-Claude Cornu ( FDP ). In December 2005 he became Vice President of the Social Democratic Group in the Federal Assembly. In the 2007 elections , he missed an absolute majority in the first ballot. Since his rivals (including Cornu again) refused to run in the second ballot, Berset was confirmed in a silent election for four more years. In 2008/2009 he was President of the Council of States . In the federal elections in 2011 , he was re-elected as a Council of States in the first ballot.

In the Federal Council elections in December 2011, he was elected as one of the two official SP candidates as the successor to the resigning Federal Councilor Micheline Calmy-Rey in the second ballot with 126 votes, with an absolute majority of 123 votes, as the 115th Federal Councilor of Switzerland. He took up his post on January 1, 2012 as Head of the Department of Home Affairs FDHA, while his predecessor Didier Burkhalter in the FDHA succeeded Calmy-Reys in the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs (FDFA). In the Federal Council elections in December 2015, he was re-elected with 210 votes. On December 6, 2017, Berset was elected Federal President for the 2018 year of office with 190 of 210 valid votes.

Alain Berset on August 1, 2018 as Federal President during his address on the Rütli

Visits abroad as Federal President 2018

date	place	Main reason
January 8th and 9th	Vienna ( Austria )	Meeting with President Alexander Van der Bellen , and German Sebastian Kurz , as well as meetings with IAEA -Generaldirektor Yukiya Amano , OSCE Secretary General Thomas Greminger and Harlem Désir , OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media.
February 4th to 7th	Dhaka and Cox's Bazar ( Bangladesh )	Meeting with President Abdul Hamid and Prime Minister Hasina Wajed as well as a visit to the Kutupalong camp for refugees from neighboring Myanmar who belong to the Rohingya ethnic group.
February 8-10	Seoul and Pyeongchang ( South Korea )	Meeting with President Moon Jae-in and attending the opening ceremony and competitions of the 2018 Winter Olympics
5. March	Vaduz ( Liechtenstein )	Meeting with Hereditary Prince Alois of Liechtenstein and Prime Minister Adrian Hasler
April 12-14	Tokyo ( Japan )	Meeting with President Shinzō Abe and Health Minister Katsunobu Katō and participation in an international summit on patient safety
May 11th	Cannes ( France )	Attended the Cannes International Film Festival
May 13th and 14th	Riga ( Latvia )	Meeting with President Raimonds Vējonis and participating in the celebrations for the 100th anniversary of Latvia's independence
June 16 and 17	Rostov-on-Don ( Russia )	Visit to the World Cup group game between Switzerland and Brazil
25th June	Luxembourg ( Luxembourg )	Meeting with Prime Minister Xavier Bettel and the President of the House of Representatives Mars Di Bartolomeo as well as a courtesy visit to Grand Duke Henri
July 9th and 10th	Nairobi and Kakuma ( Kenya )	Meeting with President Uhuru Kenyatta and visiting the Kakuma refugee camp
August 26th to 28th	Beirut ( Lebanon )	Meeting with President Michel Aoun , Prime Minister Saad Hariri and Speaker of Parliament Nabih Berri
September 2nd and 3rd	Lindau ( Germany )	Participation in the meeting of the health ministers of German-speaking countries
12th September	Paris ( France )	Meeting with President Emmanuel Macron
September 24-27	New York City and Philadelphia ( United States )	Participation in the UN General Assembly and speech at the University of Pennsylvania
October 11th and 12th	Yerevan ( Armenia )	Participation in the Francophonie Summit
October 18th and 19th	Brussels ( Belgium )	Participation in the ASEM summit
October 26th	Oxford ( UK )	Speech at the University of Oxford
November 1st	Bucharest ( Romania )	Meeting with President Klaus Johannis
November 11th	Paris ( France )	Participation in the commemoration of the end of the First World War
November 12th	Rome and Palermo ( Italy ) and Vatican City	Audience with Pope Francis and meeting with Cardinal Secretary Pietro Parolin and participation in an international conference on Libya
December 2nd and 3rd	Katowice ( Poland )	Participation in the UN climate conference

literature

• Alain Berset in the Munzinger archive ( beginning of article freely available)

Web links

Commons : Alain Berset  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• Alain Berset on the website of the Federal Department of Home Affairs
• Alain Berset on the website of the Federal Assembly

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} The pink middle-distance runner. Alain Berset from Freiburg becomes the new President of the Council of States. In: Neue Zürcher Zeitung. December 1, 2008, accessed December 14, 2011 . 
2. ^ Alain Berset: “Une très belle école de vie”. In: Le Matin. August 12, 2017. Retrieved August 29, 2018 . 
3. ↑ Two men are favored. In: St. Galler Tagblatt. September 8, 2011, accessed August 29, 2018 . 
4. ↑ Records du club. In: Club athlétique de Belfaux. 2018, accessed August 29, 2018 . 
5. ↑ ^{a b} Federal Councilor Alain Berset. Head of the Federal Department of Home Affairs FDHA. Retrieved January 29, 2017 . 
6. ↑ Political talent vs. pragmatic Romand. In: Tages-Anzeiger. November 25, 2011, accessed December 14, 2011 . 
7. ↑ Alain Berset: Maybe this time at the very front. In: SR DRS. Retrieved December 14, 2011 . 
8. ^ Canton of Friborg. Council of States. 2 seats (2007). Federal Statistical Office, accessed on December 14, 2011 . 
9. ^ Canton of Friborg. Council of States. 2 seats (2011). Federal Statistical Office, accessed on December 14, 2011 . 
10. ↑ General election of the Federal Council on December 14, 2011. (No longer available online.) The Federal Assembly - The Swiss Parliament, archived from the original on December 3, 2011 ; Retrieved December 14, 2011 . 
11. ↑ Burkhalter becomes Foreign Minister, Berset Interior Minister. In: Tages-Anzeiger. December 16, 2011, accessed December 16, 2011 . 

predecessor	Office	successor
Micheline Calmy-Rey	Member of the Swiss Federal Council since 2012	-