Swiss perspectives in 10 languages

President of Swiss People’s Party to stand down

Marco Chiesa
Marco Chiesa during the federal elections in November © Ti-press

Marco Chiesa, president of the right-wing Swiss People’s Party, will not stand for re-election at the end of his term of office in March 2024.

“I had a mission. And it has been fulfilled,” said the Ticino native, who was elected party president in 2020.

The People’s Party’s selection committee had already begun its work, Chiesa, 49, said in an interview with CH Media and Corriere del Ticino on Thursday. He was convinced that the time was right for him to step down as party president. “The aim of my term in office was to win the elections and strengthen the politics and values of the People’s Party.” He had succeeded in doing so, he said.

His party gained nine seats in the federal elections in October, achieving the third-best result in its history, Chiesa said. “We still have potential in many areas, but we are in a good position.”

+ Elections 2023: Swiss parliament shifts to the right

Chiesa, who was confirmed as a member of the Senate in Ticino in November, said he would not disappear after his position as party president. “I will open new chapters in my life.” He said he is also the owner of a trust company and has set up a foundation that manages crèches. However, unlike his party colleagues Albert Rösti and Ueli Maurer, he is not drawn to the federal government. “Becoming a Federal Councillor is not a personal goal of mine,” he said.

This news story has been written and carefully fact-checked by an external editorial team. At SWI swissinfo.ch we select the most relevant news for an international audience and use automatic translation tools such as DeepL to translate it into English. Providing you with automatically translated news gives us the time to write more in-depth articles. You can find them here

If you want to know more about how we work, have a look here, and if you have feedback on this news story please write to english@swissinfo.ch.

External Content
Your subscription could not be saved. Please try again.
Almost finished… We need to confirm your email address. To complete the subscription process, please click the link in the email we just sent you.
Daily news

Get the most important news from Switzerland in your inbox.

Daily

The SBC Privacy Policy provides additional information on how your data is processed.

News

In compliance with the JTI standards

More: SWI swissinfo.ch certified by the Journalism Trust Initiative

You can find an overview of ongoing debates with our journalists here . Please join us!

If you want to start a conversation about a topic raised in this article or want to report factual errors, email us at english@swissinfo.ch.

SWI swissinfo.ch - a branch of Swiss Broadcasting Corporation SRG SSR

SWI swissinfo.ch - a branch of Swiss Broadcasting Corporation SRG SSR