Switzerland’s first blind politician on his career and direct democracy
Manuele Bertoli is the only visually impaired member of a cantonal government in Switzerland. How did he manage to have such a successful political career despite being blind? What is his vision of Swiss democracy and its instruments of direct democracy? We spoke to him just before his retirement from political life.
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A journalist at Swiss Radio International, the predecessor of SWI swissinfo.ch, beginning in 1999. Started out as an investigative journalist and TV reporter in Mexico.
Céline joined swissinfo.ch in 2018 as video journalist for the 'Nouvo in English' project, just after graduating from the Academie du journalisme et des medias (AJM) at the University of Neuchâtel. Originally from Ticino, she's been filming, writing and interviewing people all over Switzerland since she got her first reporter badge at 11 during a school camp.
Bertoli, from the left-wing Social Democratic Party, became head of the government of the Italian-speaking canton of Ticino in 2014. He has been a member of the Ticino government (composed of five members from four different parties) since 2011 and has held the cantonal presidency thrice. In April 2023, at the age of 62, the lawyer will complete his third and final term.
“Direct democracy in Switzerland is not something that those in power use to confirm their own ideas,” he explains. “But something that often starts from the bottom, with citizens’ initiatives.”
This article was published as part of a journalistic collaboration between Animal Político and SWI swissinfo.ch to exchange perspectives on democracy, its actors and the use of the tools of direct democracy in Mexico and Switzerland, in a global context.
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