Michel Pittet

Michel Pittet

Michel Pittet (born July 10, 1941 in Sâles , Gruyère district ) is a Swiss politician and State Councilor of the canton of Friborg .

Life

Michel Pittet, Catholic, comes from La Joux ( Vuisternens-devant-Romont since 2012 ) and his parents are Henri Pittet, farmer, and Cécile nee. Gremaud, housewife, from the Gruyère district. He is the oldest of four children. In 1964 he married Marie-Thérèse Borcard that from the Glane district comes. The couple has three children.

After primary school in La Joux, Michel Pittet attended the (agricultural) regional school in Bulle . Up to the age of 18 he helped his father and brother on the farm so that the latter could take over it later. Because he wanted to continue his education, he attended the École Bénédict in 1961/62 for commercial training and then self-taught for the commercial matura of the St. Michael College , which he passed in 1967.

He then went to university, first as a listener, then as a student. In the absence of scholarships, he financed his studies himself. He worked at the post office (at night), in a private company and above all as a teacher at the École Bénédict. In 1976 he completed his doctorate in economics and social sciences . Another additional income earned him the work that he did for 20 years, supported by his wife, as the community secretary of his home in La Joux.

In 1973 he found a job in the Office for Economic Development of the Canton of Friborg , which he headed from 1985 to 1991. Its main tasks included regional development policy, the granting of loans to mountain regions and economic development, which was intended to ensure the upswing of existing companies and the establishment of new domestic and foreign companies in the canton.

In 1991 he ran on the Christian Democratic list, which included five names, for the State Council with the aim of representing the south of the canton in the government. In the first ballot on November 17th, in which nobody achieved an absolute majority, he came second out of 21 applicants. In the second ballot on December 8th, he took first place with 45% of the votes. Michel Pittet took over the economics, transport and energy directorate, which he headed for three terms until 2006. During these years he was President of the State Council three times (1995, 1999, 2004).

Employment policy was central to Pittet. This can be seen, among other things, in the French name of the direction, which was renamed the Direction de l'économie et de l'emploi in 2002. In the first two terms of office he was primarily committed to maintaining and creating jobs and in his third term he made a significant contribution to increasing incomes. He sought to consolidate what had been achieved by promoting high value added industries, an area he referred to as "the new economy." It comprised five activity groups: machinery, chemistry, communications, promotion of international financial operations, and business services.

In the other sectors of his activity, Michel Pittet submitted the following laws to the Grand Council: Transport (1994), Energy and Legal Form of the Freiburgische Elektrizitätswerke FEW (2000), Power Supply (2003) and Economic Development (2006). In addition, there was the Law on Employment and Unemployment Assistance (1993), supplemented by the establishment of a cantonal employment fund - an absolute novelty - which was fed by the “solidarity centime” deducted from taxes.

With regard to intercantonal cooperation, from 1994 to 1997 he headed the government committee of Espace Mittelland , which includes the cantons of Bern , Friborg , Jura , Neuchâtel and Solothurn . Since 1992 he also headed the board of directors of the FEW who later Groupe E . One of the main dossiers in this context was the merger of FEW and ENSA (Energie neuchâteloise SA), to which the development of the strategy in connection with the opening of the expanding electricity market was added. In 2011 he resigned as President of Groupe E.

literature

• Georges Andrey , Hubertus von Gemmingen (translation): The Freiburg State Council: 1848–2011; History, organization, members . Ed .: John Clerc, Jean-Pierre Dorand, Nicholas Gex. Paulus, Freiburg 2012, ISBN 978-3-7228-0815-4 .

Web links

• Farewell speech as Minister of Economic Affairs in 2007

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Arthur Zurkinden: Freiburg's economic catch-up ( memento of the original from October 4, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF; 959 kB), in: Freiburger Nachrichten of May 31, 2013 
2. ↑ Short minutes of the General Assembly of Groupe-E ( Memento of the original from October 4, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.