An Italian president for the Switzerland. 24 years after Flavio Cotti, the Swiss parliament has appointed to the prestigious position Ignazio Cassis. Former Foreign Minister and exponent of the Liberal Radical Party, Cassis has a center-right political background.
A choice that was in any case expected and therefore does not raise any surprises. Switzerland has a government that revolves around the Federal Council, a unique case of directorial government. Indeed there is no head of state and no head of government in the strict sense of the term. The role of president that Cassis will assume starting from 1 January is quite a primus inter pares, who is periodically chosen by alternating the seven federal councilors.
Who is Ignazio Cassis
Born in Sessa, a town of 700 inhabitants near Lugano, in 1961, Cassis is of Italian origin: his father, in fact, came from Luino, on the Lombard shore of Lake Maggiore, while his mother was from Bergamo.
Swiss citizen from the age of 15, studied medicine in Zurich, specializing in internal medicine and public health. This background of hers has understandably proved very important over the past two years of the pandemic. He was a cantonal doctor until 2008, and in the meantime he rose to the top of the Liberal Radical Party in the Canton of Ticino.
In 2017 he was elected as a member of the Federal Council, thus renouncing Italian citizenship: it is only a question of the eighth Federal Councilor from the Canton of Ticino, in the 173 years of existence of this institution. With his current appointment as president, Ignazio Cassis will become the fifth Ticino man in history to hold this position.
The political objectives
"We will be stronger and more united than ever" Cassis said, alluding, as reported by theHandle, to recent internal controversy over the management of the pandemic: In Switzerland, the percentage of vaccinated with both doses is 66%.
But the new president has also been at the center of other criticisms in the last period. In particular for his work as Foreign Minister and specifically for the stop of the talks for a collaborative relationship with the European Union. "We will not allow ourselves to be put under pressure by the EU" he told the Tamedia group in mid-November.
Elected with 156 votes out of 197, Ignazio Cassis will hold the presidential office of the Swiss Confederation for the whole of 2022, thus replacing the Minister of Economy Guy Parmelin. His deputy will be Alain Berset, who already holds the position of Minister of Health.
Featured photo source: Twitter source @ignaziocassis
