Influential Swiss politician Vreni Spoerry dies aged 87

Zurich FDP politician Vreni Spoerry dies aged 87 Keystone-SDA

Zurich politician Vreni Spoerry died on Thursday at the age of 87. She was extremely influential in federal financial policy for 20 years as a member of the Senate and the House of Representatives.

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Zurich city councillor Filippo Leutenegger confirmed her death on behalf of the cantonal Radical-Liberal Party, following a report in the Tamedia newspapers on Monday.

“We mourn the loss of a great liberal woman who did a lot for Switzerland,” he told the Swiss News Agency Keystone-SDA in response to an enquiry. Spoerry was close to the people without taking off, he continued.

Vreni Spoerry was a member of the House of Representatives from 1983 to 1996 and then of the Senate until 2003. She began her political career in 1978 as the first female municipal councillor in Horgen, canton Zurich, and became a cantonal councillor in 1979.

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While on the municipal executive, Spoerry took over the finance directorate. She later also made a name for herself as a financial politician at national level during the heyday of the Zurich Free Democrats.

Translated from German by DeepL/ts

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