Alain Berset | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Official portrait, 2023 | |
| Secretary General of the Council of Europe | |
| Assumed office 18 September 2024 | |
| Preceded by | Marija Pejčinović Burić |
| President of Switzerland | |
| In office 1 January 2023 – 31 December 2023 | |
| Vice President | Viola Amherd |
| Preceded by | Ignazio Cassis |
| Succeeded by | Viola Amherd |
| In office 1 January 2018 – 31 December 2018 | |
| Vice President | Ueli Maurer |
| Preceded by | Doris Leuthard |
| Succeeded by | Ueli Maurer |
| Vice President of Switzerland | |
| In office 1 January 2022 – 31 December 2022 | |
| President | Ignazio Cassis |
| Preceded by | Ignazio Cassis |
| Succeeded by | Viola Amherd |
| In office 1 January 2017 – 31 December 2017 | |
| President | Doris Leuthard |
| Preceded by | Doris Leuthard |
| Succeeded by | Ueli Maurer |
| Swiss Federal Councillor | |
| In office 1 January 2012 – 31 December 2023 | |
| Department | Home Affairs |
| Preceded by | Micheline Calmy-Rey |
| Succeeded by | Beat Jans |
| President of the Council of States | |
| In office 1 December 2008 – 23 November 2009 | |
| Preceded by | Christoffel Brändli |
| Succeeded by | Erika Forster-Vannini |
| Personal details | |
| Born | (1972-04-09)9 April 1972 (age 53) |
| Party | Social Democratic Party |
| Spouse | |
| Children | 3 |
| Residence | Belfaux, Switzerland |
| Education | University of Neuchâtel (BA,MA,PhD) |
| Signature |  |
| Website | alainberset parlament |
Alain Berset (French pronunciation:[alɛ̃bɛʁsɛ]; born 9 April 1972) is a Swiss politician who served as aMember of the Swiss Federal Council from 2012 to 2023. A member of theSocial Democratic Party (SP/PS), he headed theFederal Department of Home Affairs from when he took office. Berset served asPresident of the Swiss Confederation for 2018 and 2023.
On 25 June 2024, Berset was electedSecretary General of the Council of Europe, and assumed his role on 18 September 2024 succeedingMarija Pejčinović Burić.[1]
Berset was born inFribourg on 9 April 1972, the elder of two children, to Michel Berset, a teacher at the commercial and industrial school of Fribourg, and Solange Berset (née Angéloz; b. 1952), a bookseller.[2] He was raised in apolitical family. His maternal grandfather, François Angéloz, was among the first municipal presidents of theSocial Democratic Party, in the predominantly conservative Fribourg.[3]
Berset speaksFrench,German,Romansh,Italian andEnglish fluently.[4][5]
Berset studiedpolitical science andeconomics at theUniversity of Neuchâtel, where he received a master's degree in political science in 1996 and a PhD in economics in 2005 with a dissertation about the role of international migration upon local working conditions.[6]
Berset is married to Muriel Zeender Berset and is the father of three children. The family lives inBelfaux, a village near Fribourg.[7]
Berset worked as an assistant lecturer and researcher at the Institute for Regional Economics of the University of Neuchâtel from 1996 till 2000, when he moved to the Hamburg Institute for Economic Research for a year. In 2000 he became a member of the Constituent Assembly of the canton of Fribourg and president of its social democrat parliamentary group until 2004. He also served on the Belfaux communal parliament from 2001 to 2003. In 2002, he became a strategic consultant to the Department of Economic Affairs of thecanton of Neuchâtel.[8]
In 2003 he was elected to theSwiss Council of States from thecanton of Fribourg as a member of the Social Democratic Party becoming the youngest member of the Council of States,[9] as well as the party's parliamentary group's vice president in December 2005. He was also a member of the parliamentary assembly of theOrganization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE). Following his reelection in 2007, he was elected the States Council's vice president in 2007–2008; he subsequently served as the body's president in 2008–2009.[8]
On 14 December 2011, he was elected to theSwiss Federal Council, the seven-member Swiss federal government, with 126 votes out of 245. He was one of the Social Democratic Party's two candidates (alongsidePierre-Yves Maillard) officially put forward to succeed the head of theFederal Department of Foreign Affairs,Micheline Calmy-Rey, who had announced her resignation from the Federal Council.[10] Berset became head of theFederal Department of Home Affairs as its former headDidier Burkhalter became head of theFederal Department of Foreign Affairs.[11]
On 1 January 2017, Berset becameVice-President of the Federal Council under PresidentDoris Leuthard.
.jpg)
Berset became President on 1 January 2018. He left the presidency on 31 December 2018. He was succeeded byUeli Maurer.
At age 45, he was the youngest officeholder sinceMarcel Pilet-Golaz in 1934.[12]
During theCOVID-19 pandemic in Switzerland, as head of the Federal Department of Home Affairs, he was one of the leading figures in the government's response to the crisis. Following an interview with Berset,Schweizer Radio und Fernsehen (SRF) wrote, "there were moments during the first wave when he no longer knew whether it was day or night, weekday or weekend. He said he had never experienced anything like that before".[13]
On 1 January 2022, Berset became again Vice-President of the Federal Council, under PresidentIgnazio Cassis.
On 7 December 2022, he was elected President, succeeding Cassis on 1 January 2023.[14]
On 21 June 2023, he announced in a press conference that he would not run for re-election as a member of the Federal Council in theelection on 13 December 2023.[15] He left office on 31 December 2023,[16] He was succeeded byBeat Jans.[17]
In January 2024, Berset became the Swiss government's candidate to succeedMarija Pejčinović Burić asSecretary General of the Council of Europe, competing withDidier Reynders andIndrek Saar.[18][19]
On 25 June 2024, Berset was electedSecretary General of the Council of Europe, to succeedMarija Pejčinović Burić.[20] He defeated Belgian candidateDidier Reynders and Estonian candidateIndrek Saar.[21]
He took office on 18 September 2024.[22]
On 21 November 2020, the weeklyDie Weltwoche revealed, from the pen of the former Zürich SVP/UDC national councillor Christoph Mörgeli, that Berset was the victim of an attempted blackmail the previous year. A woman, since convicted in criminal proceedings, allegedly tried to extort 100,000 Swiss francs from him by threatening to publish photographs and private messages that they had exchanged.[23] The political world seized the case;[24] the Supervisory Authority of the Public Ministry of the Confederation (MPC) opened an investigation to verify that the Federal Councillor did not benefit from favours in the treatment of his complaint.[25]
In September 2021, while the health policy followed by the Federal Council to overcome the COVID-19 pandemic was contested and Alain Berset criticized, the case bounced back: a controversy broke out over the use of a vehicle of representation during an escapade with the woman, on the use of state collaborators to settle the attempt of blackmail, in particular by sending theTask Force TIGRIS of theFederal Office of Police at the home of the woman concerned, as well as on the limits between respect for the private life invoked by the magistrate and the public interest.[26][27][28][29][30][31]
On 14 June 2022, Berset was cleared in a parliamentary investigation into the alleged abuse of state resources.[32]
On 5 July 2022 Berset entered the restricted airspace approximately ten kilometres south ofAvord Air Base in France.[33] HisCessna 182 was then intercepted by twoRafale fighter jets of theFrench Air Force who forced him to land. Berset's statements to the press described the interception as a "private affair".[34] He was at the time thePresident of Switzerland. This was the first time that an aerial interception in France involved a sitting member of a government.[35]
Berset is the author of several books and some 30 articles on economic development, migration, and regional development.[36]
The Swiss President will make his statement in German and French but can take questions in English as well.
"It is a great honour and a great responsibility," Berset told parliament after the vote, delivering his message in all four of Switzerland's official languages (German, French, Italian and Romansh).
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
| Political offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | President of the Council of States 2008–2009 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Member of the Swiss Federal Council 2012–2023 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Head of theDepartment of Home Affairs 2012–2024 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Vice President of Switzerland 2017 | Succeeded by |
| President of Switzerland 2018 | ||
| Preceded by | Vice President of Switzerland 2022 | Succeeded by |
| President of Switzerland 2023 | ||
| 1848–1874 |  | |
|---|---|---|
| 1875–1899 | ||
| 1900–1924 | ||
| 1925–1949 | ||
| 1950–1974 | ||
| 1975–1999 | ||
| 2000–present | ||
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Artists | |
| People | |
| Other | |
