Swiss party president Thierry Burkart to step down in October

Thierry Burkart to step down in October. Keystone-SDA

Thierry Burkart, president of the centre-right Radical-Liberal Party, is stepping down. He wants to hand over the presidency of the party in October, around two years before the next national elections.

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The 49-year-old lawyer has led the Radical-Liberal Party for almost four years.

Burkart, a senator for canton Aargau, northern Switzerland, wanted to focus exclusively on factual politics and devote more time to his professional activities, the party wrote on Tuesday. Burkart was quoted in the statement as saying that the timing was right for a change at the top of the party.

This is because the Radical-Liberal Party is now clearly positioned, has a united front and is in a strong organisational position, he said.

Burkart had led the party with foresight, integrity and great personal dedication, the party wrote. By announcing his resignation at an early stage, he had created the conditions for an orderly handover of his office, it added.

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The Radical-Liberal Party will announce the next steps on Thursday. It plans to set up a search committee. According to the party executive committee, this will be headed by former parliamentary group leader and Zurich parliamentarian Beat Walti.

Burkart has been a member of the Senate since 2019. He previously spent four years in the House of Representatives and was a member of the Aargau cantonal parliament from 2001 to 2015. He presided over this in 2014 and was president of the Radical-Liberal Party Aargau from 2010 to 2013.

Translated from German by DeepL/ts

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