Giovanni Battista Pioda

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Giovanni Battista Pioda

Giovanni Battista Pioda (born October 4, 1808 in Locarno , † November 3, 1882 in Rome ; resident in Locarno; also called Giovan Battista Pioda ) was a Swiss politician , lawyer and diplomat . He was one of the leading figures of liberalism in the canton of Ticino , for almost three decades he worked as a public prosecutor , state clerk and member of the cantonal government. After nine years of membership in the National Council and the Council of States , he was elected to the Federal Council in 1857 as a representative of the liberal center (today's FDP ) . He was a member of this for six years. He then represented Switzerland's interests as the Swiss envoy in Italy .

biography

Study and job

Pioda came from an influential Locarno family; he was the eldest of eleven children of the eponymous major Giovan Battista Pioda , later Councilor of State and delegate of the Diet , and of Teresa Ghiringhelli. Three of his brothers later also became famous: Giuseppe as an architect, Luigi as a councilor and Paolo as a professor. In 1816 the family temporarily moved to the Kingdom of the United Netherlands , where their father had taken command of a battalion. Pioda went to school in an institute in Mechelen and returned to Ticino at the age of 16. He continued his education with the Benedictines in Bellinzona . From 1825 he attended the monastery school in Einsiedeln . He studied philosophy at the Collegio Gallio in Como , then law at the University of Pavia .

Because of his liberal ideas, Pioda was under observation by the Austrian authorities in Pavia. He had also been expelled from the country after a brief visit to Naples . In 1830 he published the text Osservazioni intorno alla riforma della Costituzione del Cantone Ticino ("Considerations on the reform of the constitution of the Canton of Ticino from all sides"), in which he called for the introduction of universal suffrage , freedom of the press and the expansion of the education system. After graduating in 1831, he completed an internship with Domenico Galli , and two years later he was admitted to the bar and notary. In 1834 he was elected public prosecutor for the Locarno district. The following year he married Agata Sozzi-Sorbolonghi, with whom he had eight children.

Cantonal and federal politics

During the revolution in December 1839, the liberals seized power in Ticino. The newly composed State Council (consiglio di stato) , the cantonal government, then appointed Pioda as state clerk . In this office he was actively involved in the suppression of an attempted coup by the ultramontanes in 1841 . In 1842 he was himself elected to the State Council and took over the management of the Ministry of the Interior, as well as being responsible for the postal administration. From 1847 he was again state clerk before he entered the State Council a second time in 1855 (this time as building director).

Due to strong opposition, two attempts to introduce universal suffrage were unsuccessful in 1843 and 1851 . On the other hand, a new liberal school law was introduced and in 1848 the church property was nationalized. The support of the Italian independence movement led to sanctions on the part of Austria . For example, the expulsion of all Ticinese from the Kingdom of Lombardy-Veneto in 1853 caused major economic and social problems. Pioda campaigned vehemently for political refugees and pursued an emphatically anti-clerical policy.

At the federal level, Pioda took part in various conferences on transport and postal issues from 1834, and in Turin he led negotiations on customs and railroad issues . In 1844 and 1848 he was the delegate of the Diet. On behalf of the federal state that emerged after the Sonderbund War , he was a commissioner in the canton of Friborg , where he succeeded in mediating between liberals and conservatives and in bringing about reconciliation. In October 1848, Pioda was elected to the National Council in the first parliamentary elections, and from 1851 he represented the constituency of Ticino-South . In 1853 he was President of the National Council . He was a temporary member of the Council of States in 1854 and returned to the National Council in 1855.

Federal Councilor and diplomat

Monument in Locarno

After the unexpected death of Stefano Franscini , Pioda was considered the most promising candidate for his successor. On July 30, 1857, the United Federal Assembly elected him to the Federal Council , receiving 64 out of 127 votes in the first ballot and thus an absolute majority. 13 votes went to Sebastiano Beroldingen , 10 to Joseph-Hyacinthe Barman and 40 to other people. Immediately afterwards he was assigned the Department of Home Affairs , which he headed throughout his tenure.

Article 23 of the Federal Constitution made it possible for the Confederation to participate in construction projects in the cantons. Pioda gave the decisive impetus for the correction of the Rhone in the canton of Valais and the Rhine in the canton of St. Gallen, as well as the first correction of the Jura waters in the Seeland . By targeting subsidies, he sought to improve the quality and yield of agriculture. Like his predecessor, he devoted himself extensively to statistics , which led to the establishment of the Federal Statistical Office in January 1860 . On the question of a railway line through the Alps, he actively campaigned for the Gotthard Railway from 1863 , as his home canton would benefit most from it. To this end, he contacted the Italian authorities.

On January 26, 1864, Pioda announced his resignation. A little later he took over the office of ambassador to the court of King Victor Emanuel II. First he resided in Turin, from 1865 in Florence and finally from 1870 in Rome . He used his diplomatic relations to help the Gotthard Railway achieve a political breakthrough and to persuade Italy to provide partial financing in the amount of 55 million francs.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Ghiringhelli: The Federal Council Lexicon . P. 93.
  2. ^ Ghiringhelli: The Federal Council Lexicon . P. 94.
  3. ^ Ghiringhelli: The Federal Council Lexicon . Pp. 94-95.
  4. ^ Ghiringhelli: The Federal Council Lexicon . P. 95.
  5. ^ Ghiringhelli: The Federal Council Lexicon . Pp. 95-96.
  6. ^ Ghiringhelli: The Federal Council Lexicon . P. 96.
predecessor Office successor
Stefano Franscini Member of the Swiss Federal Council
1857–1863 		Jean-Jacques Challet-Venel
personal data
SURNAME Pioda, Giovanni Battista
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Pioda, Giovan Battista
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swiss politician and diplomat
DATE OF BIRTH October 4, 1808
PLACE OF BIRTH Locarno
DATE OF DEATH November 3, 1882
Place of death Rome