Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf | |
|---|---|
 Official portrait, 2011 | |
| President of Switzerland | |
| In office 1 January 2012 – 31 December 2012 | |
| Vice President | Ueli Maurer |
| Preceded by | Micheline Calmy-Rey |
| Succeeded by | Ueli Maurer |
| Vice President of Switzerland | |
| In office 1 January 2011 – 31 December 2011 | |
| President | Micheline Calmy-Rey |
| Preceded by | Micheline Calmy-Rey |
| Succeeded by | Ueli Maurer |
| Head of theDepartment of Finance | |
| In office 1 November 2010 – 31 December 2015 | |
| Preceded by | Hans-Rudolf Merz |
| Succeeded by | Ueli Maurer |
| Head of theDepartment of Justice and Police | |
| In office 1 January 2008 – 31 October 2010 | |
| Preceded by | Christoph Blocher |
| Succeeded by | Simonetta Sommaruga |
| Member of the Swiss Federal Council | |
| In office 1 January 2008 – 31 December 2015 | |
| Preceded by | Christoph Blocher |
| Succeeded by | Guy Parmelin |
| Personal details | |
| Born | (1956-03-16)16 March 1956 (age 69) Felsberg,Switzerland |
| Political party | Swiss People's Party (before 2008) Conservative Democratic Party (2008–2021) The Centre (2021–present) |
| Spouse | Christoph Widmer[1] |
| Children | 3 |
| Alma mater | University of Zürich |
Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf (born 16 March 1956) is a Swiss politician and lawyer who served as aMember of the Swiss Federal Council from 2008 to 2015. A member of theSwiss People's Party (SVP/UDC) until 2008, she was then a member of the splinterConservative Democratic Party (BDP/PBD) until 2021, when that party merged intoThe Centre. Widmer-Schlumpf was the head of theFederal Department of Justice and Police from 2008 to 2010, when she became head of theFederal Department of Finance.[2] She served asPresident of the Swiss Confederation in 2012.
Widmer-Schlumpf is married and has three children. She is the daughter of Federal CouncillorLeon Schlumpf.[3] She is the second Federal Councillor whose father had held the same office afterEugène Ruffy, as well as the sixth woman to be elected to the Swiss Federal Council. Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf is also patron of the projectSAFFA 2020, alongside the Federal CouncillorsDoris Leuthard,Simonetta Sommaruga and former Federal CouncillorMicheline Calmy-Rey.[4]
Widmer-Schlumpf received her degree in law at theUniversity of Zürich in 1981 and her LLD in 1990. She worked as a lawyer from 1987 to 1998. She was elected to the district court ofTrin in 1985, presiding from 1991 to 1997. As a member of theSwiss People's Party, she was elected to theGrand Council of Grisons from 1994 to 1998; that year she was elected to thecantonal government as the first woman, acting as president in 2001 and2005.
Widmer-Schlumpf was named as an alternative candidate to Federal CouncillorChristoph Blocher by theChristian Democrat,Social Democrat andGreen factions in the2007 Swiss Federal Council election. In the first round, she received 116 votes, compared to 111 votes for Blocher. In the second round, she was elected to be the 110thFederal Councillor with 125 votes, 115 votes going to Blocher and 6 spurious, empty or invalid. She accepted her election on 13 December 2007. She assumed Blocher's old portfolio as head of theFederal Department of Justice and Police.
After her election, Widmer-Schlumpf was intensely opposed by the national leadership of the Swiss People's Party, who denounced her as a traitor to her party for accepting an election that she won without the support of the party. Immediately after her election, she was excluded from the SVP/UDCparty group's meetings, as was her colleagueSamuel Schmid.[5] In another unprecedented development in Swiss politics, on 2 April 2008 the national party leadership called upon Widmer-Schlumpf to resign from the Federal Council at once and to leave the party. When Widmer-Schlumpf refused to do so, the SVP/UDC demanded that its Grisons section expel her. Since Swiss parties are legally federations of cantonal parties, the SVP/UDC could not directly expel her. The Grisons branch stood by Widmer-Schlumpf, prompting its expulsion from the national party on 1 June. In response, the former SVP Grisons section formed theConservative Democratic Party of Switzerland. The SVP's Bern section, of which Schmid is a member, also joined the new party.
Following a reshuffle of portfolios after theby-election of two new Federal Councillors in 2010, Widmer-Schlumpf replaced outgoingHans-Rudolf Merz as the head of theFederal Department of Finance.[6] Widmer-Schlumpf was elected vice president of the Confederation for 2011, alongside PresidentMicheline Calmy-Rey. On 14 December 2011 she was electedPresident of the Confederation for 2012—the fourth woman to hold the post afterRuth Dreifuss in 1999, Calmy-Rey in 2007 and 2011, andDoris Leuthard in 2010, as well as the third woman in a row. Due to a large amount of turnover on the Federal Council, she was the longest-serving member to have not yet served as its president. After the Swiss People's Party won a record vote of over 29% in the2015 general election, Widmer-Schlumpf announced she would not run for reelection to the Federal Council on 28 October 2015.[7][8][9] She was succeeded byGuy Parmelin.
Media related toEveline Widmer-Schlumpf at Wikimedia Commons
| Political offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Member of the Swiss Federal Council 2008–2015 | Succeeded by |
| Head of theDepartment of Justice and Police 2008–2010 | Succeeded by | |
| Preceded by | Head of theDepartment of Finance 2010–2015 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Vice President of Switzerland 2011 | |
| President of Switzerland 2012 | ||
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