Victor Luffy (politician, 1823)

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Victor Luffy

Isaac-Victor-Charles-François Luffy (born January 18, 1823 in Lutry , † December 29, 1869 in Bern , entitled to residency in Lutry and Riex ; mainly called Victor Luffy ) was a Swiss politician . In the canton of Vaud he worked as a judge and government councilor, from 1858 as a national councilor . In 1868 he was elected to the Federal Council as a representative of the radical parliamentary group (today's FDP ) . He could only hold this office for two years; he is the youngest member of the state government to die in office.

biography

Education

Luffy was the son of a distinguished family of winemakers who had been Lutry's citizenship since 1535 . His father Jean-Samuel Ruffy was also a justice of the peace, a lieutenant colonel in the infantry reserves and from 1848 a member of the Grand Conseil ( cantonal parliament ) of the canton of Vaud , his mother's name was Marianne Chevalley. After receiving his schooling in Lutry and a boarding school in Lausanne , Luffy studied law at the Lausanne Academy from 1836 . From 1838 he was a member of the Belles-Lettres academic society , which he presided over in 1839. In 1841 he joined the Zofingia student union , of which he was also president in 1843/44. He was interested in botany and poetry; several of his poems were set to music and appeared in the Zofingia hymnbook.

Canton politics

After a stay abroad at the Ruprecht-Karls-Universität in Heidelberg , Luffy began a legal internship with Charles Renevier in February 1845. Since his confessions to liberalism , which he made public in speeches, displeased his conservative employer, he had to change jobs and instead went to the law firm of Marc Blanchenay, a confidante of State Councilor Henri Druey . In September 1847 Luffy passed the bar exam, two months later he was involved in the Sonderbund War as a sub-lieutenant . In January 1848 the parliament elected him as canton judge. The election had to be repeated after ten days because Luffy had not quite reached the required minimum age of 25 years on the first run. In 1851 he married Julie Chevalley.

In 1858, Luffy resigned as a judge and opened a law firm with Henri Jan. After he was elected to the Grand Council in 1859, he was also elected to the Conseil d'État ( cantonal government ) by the parliamentarians on the day he was sworn in, but he refused the election for political and personal reasons. In 1861 he was involved as Vice President of the Constitutional Council in drafting a new cantonal constitution. In February 1863, he was elected to the cantonal government, where he headed the Department of the Interior. In 1867 he was President of the Government and moved to the Education and Culture Department. There he prepared the reorganization of the cantonal teachers' college, with Louis Ruchonnet completing this task.

Federal politics

At the national level, Luffy first appeared on January 17, 1858. After not all seats in the Vaud-East constituency could be filled in the first two rounds of the National Council elections in 1857 , he ran in the third ballot and prevailed against Jules Eytel . In the National Council elections in 1860 he lost his seat in the second ballot against his law firm partner Henri Jan, but after the third ballot on January 6, 1861 he was able to move back into the National Council. He was President of the National Council in 1863 , and from July 1864 he was also a part-time federal judge . Among other things, he led the process against those radicals who had instigated street fights in the 1864 State Council elections in the canton of Geneva .

When Constant Fornerod announced his resignation from the Federal Council at the end of the year on October 2, 1867 , Luffy was considered the most promising candidate for his successor. At first he showed no interest in this position because he preferred to work in the canton of Vaud, his children were still young and his health was in poor health. But in the end he allowed himself to be changed and the united federal assembly elected him on December 6, 1867 in the first ballot, receiving 120 of 155 votes cast; 23 votes went to Jules Roguin , twelve to other people.

Federal Council

In his first year in office, Luffy was head of the finance department . At the beginning of 1869 he switched to the military department and continued Emil Welti's preparatory work for a new military organization law. He also explained how to arm the soldiers with cousin rifles . In the beginning debate about the total revision of the federal constitution , the convinced federalist spoke out vehemently against any centralization efforts. On December 10, 1869, he was elected Federal President. However, he was unable to take up this position because two and a half weeks later, at the age of 47, he suddenly succumbed to acute rheumatic inflammation.

A street in Lausanne is named after him, the avenue Victor-Luffy . His son Eugène Luffy was also a Federal Councilor from 1894 to 1899. A great-grandson, also called Victor Luffy , was a Social Democratic National Councilor from 1982 to 1999 and President of the National Council in 1990.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Albert de Montet: Dictionnaire biographique des Genevois et des Vaudois: qui se sont distingués dans leur pays ou à l'étranger par leurs talents, leurs actions, leurs oeuvres littéraires ou artistiques, etc. G. Bridel, Lausanne 1879, p. 430 ( online [PDF]).
  2. ↑ Chuard, Meuwly: Das Bundesratslexikon. P. 125.
  3. ↑ Chuard, Meuwly: Das Bundesratslexikon. Pp. 125-126.
  4. ↑ a b Chuard, Meuwly: Das Bundesratslexikon. Pp. 126-127.
  5. ↑ Chuard, Meuwly: Das Bundesratslexikon. P. 127.
  6. ↑ Chuard, Meuwly: Das Bundesratslexikon. Pp. 127-128.
  7. ↑ Short biography of the great-grandson of the same name in: Schweizer Lexikon, Luzern 1993, vol. 5
  8. ↑ great-grandson of the same name: Victor Luffy on the website of the Federal Assembly ( submitted proposals )
predecessor Office successor
Constant Fornerod Member of the Swiss Federal Council
1868–1869 		Paul Cérésole
personal data
SURNAME Luffy, Victor
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Luffy, Isaac-Victor-Charles-François (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swiss politician
DATE OF BIRTH January 18, 1823
PLACE OF BIRTH Lutry
DATE OF DEATH December 29, 1869
Place of death Bern