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Alain Berset

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Alain Berset
Official portrait, 2023
Secretary General of the Council of Europe
Elect
Assuming office
18 September 2024
SucceedingMarija Pejčinović Burić
President of Switzerland
In office
1 January 2023 – 31 December 2023
Vice PresidentViola Amherd
Preceded byIgnazio Cassis
Succeeded byViola Amherd
In office
1 January 2018 – 31 December 2018
Vice PresidentUeli Maurer
Preceded byDoris Leuthard
Succeeded byUeli Maurer
Vice President of Switzerland
In office
1 January 2022 – 31 December 2022
PresidentIgnazio Cassis
Preceded byIgnazio Cassis
Succeeded byViola Amherd
In office
1 January 2017 – 31 December 2017
PresidentDoris Leuthard
Preceded byDoris Leuthard
Succeeded byUeli Maurer
Swiss Federal Councillor
In office
1 January 2012 – 31 December 2023
DepartmentHome Affairs
Preceded byMicheline Calmy-Rey
Succeeded byBeat Jans
President of the Council of States
In office
1 December 2008 – 23 November 2009
Preceded byChristoffel Brändli
Succeeded byErika Forster-Vannini
Personal details
Born (1972-04-09) 9 April 1972 (age 52)
Fribourg, Switzerland
Political partySocial Democratic Party
Spouse
Muriel Zeender
​
(m. 2002)​
Children3
ResidenceBelfaux, Switzerland
EducationUniversity of Neuchâtel (BA, MA, PhD)
Signature
WebsiteOfficial website
Parliament website

Alain Berset (French pronunciation: [alɛ̃ bɛʁsɛ]; born 9 April 1972) is a Swiss politician who served as a Member of the Swiss Federal Council from 2012 to 2023. A member of the Social Democratic Party (SP/PS), he headed the Federal Department of Home Affairs from when he took office. Berset served as President of the Swiss Confederation for 2018 and 2023.

At age 45, he was the youngest officeholder since Marcel Pilet-Golaz in 1934.[1] Prior to his election to the Federal Council in 2011, he was a member of the Council of States (from the canton of Fribourg, 2003–2011), where he served as President of the Council of States for the 2008–2009 term. Berset speaks French, German, Romansh, Italian and English fluently.[2][3]

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 the election on 13 December 2023.[4] He left office on 31 December 2023,[5] and was succeeded by Beat Jans on the Federal Council.[6] On 25 June 2024, Berset was elected Secretary General of the Council of Europe, and will assume his role on 18 September 2024 succeeding Marija Pejčinović Burić.[7] He defeated Belgian candidate Didier Reynders and Estonian candidate Indrek Saar.[8]

Biography[edit]

Personal life[edit]

Berset was born in Fribourg 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.[9] He was raised in a political family. His maternal grandfather, François Angéloz, was among the first municipal presidents of the Social Democratic Party, in the predominantly conservative Fribourg.[10]

Berset studied political science and economics at the University 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.[11]

Berset is married to Muriel Zeender Berset and is the father of three children. The family lives in Belfaux, a village near Fribourg.[12]

Early career[edit]

Berset worked as 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 strategic consultant to the Department of Economic Affairs of the canton of Neuchâtel.[13]

Member of the Council of States[edit]

In 2003 he was elected to the Swiss Council of States from the canton of Fribourg as a member of the Social Democratic Party becoming the youngest member of the Council of States,[14] as well as the party's parliamentary group's vice president in December 2005. He was also a member of the parliamentary assembly of the Organization 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.[13]

Member of the Federal Council[edit]

2018 Swiss Federal Council
Berset with British Prime Minister Theresa May in Davos in 2018

On 14 December 2011, he was elected to the Swiss 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 (alongside Pierre-Yves Maillard) officially put forward to succeed the head of the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs, Micheline Calmy-Rey, who had announced her resignation from the Federal Council.[15] Berset became head of the Federal Department of Home Affairs as its former head Didier Burkhalter became head of the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs.[16]

On 1 January 2017, Berset became Vice-President of the Federal Council under President Doris Leuthard, whom he succeeded on 1 January 2018. He left the presidency on 31 December 2018. He was succeeded by Ueli Maurer.

During the COVID-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".[17]

On 1 January 2022, Berset became again Vice-President of the Federal Council, under President Ignazio Cassis; on 7 December 2022, he was elected President, succeeding Cassis on 1 January 2023.[18]

In January 2024, Berset became the Swiss government's candidate to succeed Marija Pejčinović Burić as Secretary General of the Council of Europe, competing with Didier Reynders and Indrek Saar.[19][20]

Blackmail affair[edit]

On 21 November 2020, the weekly Die 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.[21] The political world seized the case;[22] 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.[23]

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 the Task Force TIGRIS of the Federal Judicial Police at the home of the person concerned, as well as on the limits between respect for the private life invoked by the magistrate and the public interest.[24][25][26][27][28][29]

On 14 June 2022, Berset was cleared in a parliamentary investigation into the alleged abuse of state resources.[30]

Works[edit]

Berset is the author of several books and some 30 articles on economic development, migration, and regional development.[31]

Notes and references[edit]

  1. ^ Jaberg, Samuel; Kamel, Dhif (1 January 2018). "Youngest Swiss President in 84 Years Takes Office". Swissinfo. Retrieved 9 January 2018.
  2. ^ World Economic Forum (26 January 2018), Press Conference with Swiss President Alain Berset after meeting with US President Donald Trump, The Swiss President will make his statement in German and French but can take questions in English as well.
  3. ^ "Alain Berset elected Swiss president for 2018". The Local. 7 December 2017. Retrieved 20 May 2018. "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).
  4. ^ Gall, Corina (21 June 2023). "Alain Berset kündigt seinen Rücktritt auf Ende Jahr an". Neue Zürcher Zeitung. Retrieved 21 June 2023.
  5. ^ "Swiss President Alain Berset to step down at end of the year". Reuters. 21 June 2023. Retrieved 16 February 2024.
  6. ^ "Beat Jans ist neuer SP-Bundesrat und Nachfolger von Alain Berset". SWI swissinfo.ch (in German). 13 December 2023. Retrieved 13 December 2023.
  7. ^ "Alain Berset elected Secretary General of Council of Europe". www.admin.ch. Retrieved 25 June 2024.
  8. ^ "Reynders defeated in race to lead Council of Europe". POLITICO. 25 June 2024. Retrieved 25 June 2024.
  9. ^ Hannes Britschgi (18 December 2011). "Glücklich ist nur, wer im Jetzt lebt". Sonntagsblick (in German). Retrieved 1 February 2012.
  10. ^ "Alain Berset - Munzinger Biographie". www.munzinger.de. Retrieved 10 November 2023.
  11. ^ Alain Berset (2005). Transformation des systèmes locaux d'emploi et compétitivité des régions: le rôle des migrations internationales. Thèse de doctorat (in French). Editions Universitaires.
  12. ^ Claudia Blumer (15 December 2011). "Frau Bundesrat". Tages-Anzeiger (in German). Retrieved 1 February 2012.
  13. ^ a b "Alain Berset. Head of the Federal Department of Home Affairs". Federal Department of Home Affairs FDHA. Archived from the original on 17 February 2012. Retrieved 1 February 2012.
  14. ^ "Alain Berset: Vielleicht diesmal ganz vorne". SR DRS (in German). Archived from the original on 3 June 2012. Retrieved 14 December 2011.
  15. ^ "Gesamterneuerungswahl des Bundesrates vom 14. Dezember 2011" (in German). Die Bundesversammlung - Das Schweizer Parlament. Archived from the original on 3 December 2011. Retrieved 14 December 2011.
  16. ^ "Burkhalter wird Aussen-, Berset Innenminister". Tages-Anzeiger (in German). 16 December 2011. Retrieved 16 December 2011.
  17. ^ "'We were too lax' admits Swiss interior minister on Covid-19". Swiss Info. 26 December 2020. Retrieved 28 January 2021.
  18. ^ Binnur Donmez, Beyza (10 December 2022). "Alain Berset to assume Swiss presidency in 2023". www.aa.com.tr. Retrieved 7 December 2022.
  19. ^ Valérie de Graffenried (11 January 2024), Conseil de l’Europe: Alain Berset a deux concurrents mais toutes ses chances Le Temps.
  20. ^ Barbara Moens and Clothilde Goujard (24 January 2024), Belgium's Didier Reynders walks fine ethics line in top job campaign Politico Europe.
  21. ^ "A woman tried to extort 100,000 francs from Alain Berset". Le Matin (in French). 21 November 2020. ISSN 1018-3736. Retrieved 28 January 2021.
  22. ^ "State secrets, secrets of alcove". Le Temps (in French). 23 November 2020. ISSN 1423-3967. Retrieved 28 January 2021.
  23. ^ "Investigation into the MPC after the blackmail attempt against Alain Berset". rts.ch (in French). 23 November 2020. Retrieved 28 January 2021.
  24. ^ Lea Hartmann, Daniella (19 September 2021). "The Berset limousine ride caused a sensation". Blick (in Swiss French). Retrieved 27 September 2021.
  25. ^ Laure Lugon; Michel Guillaume (17 September 2021). "Alain Berset: last tango in Zurich". Le Temps (in French). ISSN 1423-3967. Retrieved 27 September 2021.[permanent dead link]
  26. ^ Florian Fischbacher (17 September 2021). "The case of the attempted blackmail against Alain Berset resurfaces". Le Temps (in French). ISSN 1423-3967. Retrieved 27 September 2021.[permanent dead link]
  27. ^ "Extramarital affair - Alain Berset would have used a limousine of function". Tribune de Genève (in French). 19 September 2021. Retrieved 27 September 2021.
  28. ^ "Alain Berset in a media turmoil policy". rts.ch (in French). 19 September 2021. Retrieved 27 September 2021.
  29. ^ Daloz (adaptation), Lea Hartmann, Pascal Tischhauser, Jocelyn (17 September 2021). "Le MPC veut un enquêteur spécial dans le chantage contre Alain Berset". Blick.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  30. ^ "Parliament probe clears Swiss minister in blackmail affair", swissinfo.ch, 14 June 2022.
  31. ^ "Alain Berset, Speaker of the Council of States 2008/2009 (SP, FR)". The Federal Assembly - The Swiss Parliament. Archived from the original on 15 August 2013. Retrieved 1 February 2012.

External links[edit]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Alain Berset.
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 the Department 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
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