Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf
Encyclopedia
Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf (born 16 March 1956) is a Swiss
Switzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....

 lawyer, politician, and member of the Swiss Federal Council
Swiss Federal Council
The Federal Council is the seven-member executive council which constitutes the federal government of Switzerland and serves as the Swiss collective head of state....

 since 2008. She is currently the head of the Federal Department of Finance
Federal Department of Finance
The Federal Department of Finance ; ; ) is one of the seven departments of the Swiss federal government. The department is headquartered in Bern and is headed by a member of the Swiss Federal Council, Switzerland's finance minister...

 (the Swiss finance minister
Finance minister
The finance minister is a cabinet position in a government.A minister of finance has many different jobs in a government. He or she helps form the government budget, stimulate the economy, and control finances...

).

Widmer-Schlumpf is married and has three children. She is the daughter of former federal councillor Leon Schlumpf
Leon Schlumpf
Leon Schlumpf is a Swiss politician and a former member of the Swiss Federal Council .Schlumpf was elected to the Federal Council on December 5, 1979 as a member of the Swiss People's Party from the Canton of Graubünden...

. She is the second federal councillor whose father had held the same office, after Eugène Ruffy
Eugène Ruffy
Eugène Ruffy was a Swiss politician.He was elected to the Swiss Federal Council on December 14, 1893, and resigned on October 31, 1899...

, and the sixth woman to be elected to the Swiss Federal Council.

Career in Grisons

Widmer-Schlumpf received her degree in law at the University of Zürich
University of Zurich
The University of Zurich , located in the city of Zurich, is the largest university in Switzerland, with over 25,000 students. It was founded in 1833 from the existing colleges of theology, law, medicine and a new faculty of philosophy....

 in 1981 and her LLD in 1990. She worked as a lawyer from 1987 to 1998. She was elected to the district court of Trin
Trin
Trin is a municipality in the district of Imboden in the Swiss canton of Graubünden. Crestasee is located in Trin.-Geography:Trin is perched on the mountain-side above the Rhine valley on the road between Domat/Ems and Flims. The village of Mulin is at the foot of the slope on the edge of the...

 in 1985, presiding from 1991 to 1997. As a member of the Swiss People's Party
Swiss People's Party
The Swiss People's Party , also known as the Democratic Union of the Centre , is a conservative political party in Switzerland. Chaired by Toni Brunner, but spearheaded by Christoph Blocher, the party is the largest party in the Federal Assembly, with 58 members of the National Council and 6 of...

, she was the cantonal legislative of Grisons 1994 to 1998, and in 1998 was elected to the cantonal government as the first woman, acting as president in 2001 and 2005.

Election to the Federal Council

Widmer-Schlumpf was named as an alternative candidate to Christoph Blocher
Christoph Blocher
Christoph Blocher is a Swiss politician, industrialist, and former member of the Swiss Federal Council heading the Federal Department of Justice and Police . Currently he is serving as Vice President of the Swiss People's Party...

 by the Christian Democrat
Christian Democratic People's Party of Switzerland
The Christian Democratic People's Party of Switzerland is a Christian democratic political party in Switzerland. It is the fourth-largest party in the National Council, with 31 seats, and the largest in the Council of States, with 15 seats. It has one seat, that of Doris Leuthard, on the Swiss...

, Social Democrat
Social Democratic Party of Switzerland
The Social Democratic Party of Switzerland is the largest centre-left political party in Switzerland....

 and Green
Green Party of Switzerland
The Green Party of Switzerland is the fifth-largest party in the National Council of Switzerland, and the largest party that is not represented on the Federal Council.-History:...

 fractions in the Swiss Federal Council elections of 12 December 2007. In the first round, she received 116 votes, compared to 111 votes for Blocher. In the second round, she was elected federal councillor
Swiss Federal Council
The Federal Council is the seven-member executive council which constitutes the federal government of Switzerland and serves as the Swiss collective head of state....

 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 the Department of Justice and Police.

Following a reshuffle of portfolios after the by-election of two new councilors in 2010
Swiss Federal Council election, 2010
Two by-elections to the Swiss Federal Council were held in Switzerland on 22 September 2010, after Federal Councillor Moritz Leuenberger announced he would leave the Federal Council as of December 31, 2010. as well as incumbent Federal Councillor Hans-Rudolf Merz announced his intention to retire...

, Widmer-Schlumpf is to replace outgoing Hans-Rudolf Merz
Hans-Rudolf Merz
Hans-Rudolf Merz is a Swiss politician of FDP.The Liberals and member of the Swiss Federal Council . He is the head of the Federal Department of Finance and President of the Swiss Confederation for 2009...

 at the head of the Federal Department of Finance
Federal Department of Finance
The Federal Department of Finance ; ; ) is one of the seven departments of the Swiss federal government. The department is headquartered in Bern and is headed by a member of the Swiss Federal Council, Switzerland's finance minister...

 

Expulsion from the party

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 party's group's meetings, as was her colleague Samuel Schmid
Samuel Schmid
Samuel Schmid is a Swiss politician who was a member of the Swiss Federal Council from 2000 to 2008. He was the head of the Federal Department of Defence, Civil Protection and Sports .He was elected to the Federal Council on 6 December 2000...

.

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. Widmer-Schlumpf declined to do so and on June 1, the national Swiss People's Party expelled its whole Grisons section because it had declined to expel Widmer-Schlumpf. Since Swiss political parties are legally federations of cantonal parties, the national party could not expel Widmer-Schlumpf directly. In response, the former SVP Grisons section formed the Conservative Democratic Party of Switzerland. The SVP's Bern section, of which Schmid is a member, also joined the new party.

Widmer-Schlumpf was elected Vice-President of the Confederation for 2011, alongside President-elect Micheline Calmy-Rey
Micheline Calmy-Rey
Micheline Anne-Marie Calmy-Rey is the President of the Confederation in Switzerland, head of government. She is also Switzerland's foreign minister as head of the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs. She has been a member of the Swiss Federal Council since 2003, and was President of the...

. Given current precedent, she will likely serve as President of the Confederation in 2012. Due to the large amount of turnover on the Federal Council in recent years, she is the longest-serving councilor who has not yet been President.

Works

  • Voraussetzungen der Konzession bei Radio und Fernsehen. doctorate thesis. Helbing und Lichtenhahn, Basel 1990, ISBN 3-7190-1157-7.

External links

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