Swiss Radical-Liberals elect new party co-presidents

Vincenz-Stauffacher and Mühlemann, elected by acclamation, were the only candidates for the party's co-presidency. Keystone-SDA

Radical-Liberal delegates meeting in Bern on Saturday elected St. Gallen parliamentarian Susanne Vincenz-Stauffacher and senator Benjamin Mühlemann of Glarus as co-presidents of their party.

+Get the most important news from Switzerland in your inbox

The two co-chairs succeed senator Thierry Burkart. In office since October 2021, Burkart will step down as party chair at the end of October and was greeted by delegates with a warm round of applause.

Vincenz-Stauffacher and Mühlemann, elected by acclamation, were the only candidates for the party’s co-presidency. “We want to take responsibility as a team,” said 48-year-old Mühlemann, who was a member of the Glarus cantonal executive since 2014, until his election to the Swiss senate in 2023.

+ Radical-Liberals back Switzerland-EU accords

In their inaugural speeches, both placed the issue of security at the centre. “What do people in this country want more than security?” said 58-year-old Vincenz-Stauffacher, who has been a member of the House of Representatives since 2019. Liberal politics ensures that people can feel safe and security is a guarantee of well-being, she said.

Vincenz-Stauffacher also opposed the right-wing Swiss People’s Party’s so-called neutrality initiative, which she called a “pro-Putin initiative”, and denounced the numerous femicides in Switzerland. Victim protection and prevention must be improved, she said.

+ Swiss Senate recommends rejection of neutrality initiative

Mühlemann referred to the pro-Palestinian demonstration last weekend and the clashes that followed. In Bern, he said, democracy was trampled underfoot and the rule of law was literally stoned.

Violent extremism in the heart of Switzerland is unacceptable, he said: “We will spread the message that hatred against the police and violence against law and order cannot be tolerated.”

Translated from Italian with DeepL/gw

How we work

We select the most relevant news for an international audience and use automatic translation tools to translate them into English. A journalist then reviews the translation for clarity and accuracy before publication.  

Providing you with automatically translated news gives us the time to write more in-depth articles. The news stories we select have been written and carefully fact-checked by an external editorial team from news agencies such as Bloomberg or Keystone.

If you have any questions about how we work, write to us at [e-mail].