Louis Blanchenay

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Louis Blanchenay (born May 2, 1801 in Vevey , † October 30, 1881 ibid) was a Swiss politician . From 1848 to 1860 he was a member of the National Council, from 1839 to 1861 he was the State Councilor of the Canton of Vaud .

biography

The son of the politician Antoine Blanchenay received his school education in Vevey and then studied philosophy at the academy in Geneva . From 1828 he worked as an appeal judge, from 1837 to 1839 as a forest inspector . In the military he reached the rank of lieutenant colonel in the infantry in 1838 . Blanchenay belonged to the left wing of the nascent radical liberal party. In 1839 he was elected to the Vaudois Grand Council , which then immediately elected him to the Council of State . From 1840 to 1845 he was also President of the Bex Salt Pans .

The moderate liberals, who at that time had a majority in the cantonal government, advocated strict preservation of cantonal sovereignty. They therefore refused to take sides when the Jesuits were appointed to higher education institutions in the canton of Lucerne . The radicals led by Henri Druey did not accept this hesitant attitude. In February 1845 there was a revolution in which Blanchenay (he was considered Druey's deputy and right-hand man) took an active part. As a result, a new cantonal constitution was drawn up, which was linked to an expansion of popular rights. Blanchenay was still a member of the State Council and, as was customary at the time, alternately headed all departments. He campaigned for tax progression and state intervention in railway construction. In 1845 he was one of the founding members of the Cantonal Bank of Vaud .

In October 1848 Blanchenay ran for the first National Council elections and was elected in the constituency of Vaud-East . He was re-elected three times in a row, and in the National Council he appeared particularly on questions of railway construction. In 1860 he did not stand for re-election. A year later, he also resigned as State Councilor, as the rural population was increasingly hostile to the radical liberals. Blanchenay withdrew from politics and took over the management of the customs department in Lausanne until 1873 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. Olivier Meuwly: Waadt. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland .