This is a list of people associated with the modern Switzerland and the Old Swiss Confederacy. Regardless of ethnicity or emigration, the list includes notable natives of Switzerland and its predecessor states as well as people who were born elsewhere but spent most of their active life in Switzerland. For more information see the articles Swiss people and Demographics of Switzerland.
Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland is geographically divided among the Swiss Plateau, the Alps and the Jura; the Alps occupy the greater part of the territory, whereas most of the country's population of 9 million are concentrated on the plateau, which hosts its largest cities and economic centres, including Zürich, Geneva and Basel.
Since 1848 the Swiss Confederation has been a federal republic of relatively autonomous cantons, some of which have a history of federation that goes back more than 700 years, putting them among the world's oldest surviving republics.
The 26 cantons of Switzerland are the member states of the Swiss Confederation. The nucleus of the Swiss Confederacy in the form of the first three confederate allies used to be referred to as the Waldstätte. Two important periods in the development of the Old Swiss Confederacy are summarized by the terms Acht Orte and Dreizehn Orte.
The Federal Chancellor is the head of the Federal Chancellery of Switzerland, the oldest Swiss federal institution, established at the initiative of Napoleon in 1803. The officeholder acts as the general staff of the seven-member Federal Council. The Chancellor is not a member of the government and the office is not at all comparable to that of the Chancellor of Germany or the Chancellor of Austria.
The Federal Council is the federal cabinet of the Swiss Confederation. Its seven members also serve as the collective head of state and government of Switzerland. Since after World War II, the Federal Council is by convention a permanent grand coalition government composed of representatives of the country's major parties and language regions.
The National Council is the lower house of the Federal Assembly, and the upper house being the Council of States. With 200 seats, the National Council is the larger of the two houses.
Same-sex marriage has been legal in Switzerland since 1 July 2022. Legislation to open marriage to same-sex couples passed the Swiss Parliament in December 2020. The law was challenged in a referendum on 26 September 2021 by opponents of same-sex marriage and was approved with the support of 64% of voters and a majority in all 26 cantons. The law went into force on 1 July 2022. A provision of the law permitting same-sex marriages performed abroad to be recognised in Switzerland took effect on 1 January 2022. Switzerland was the seventeenth country in Europe and the 30th in the world to allow same-sex couples to marry.
The Federal Assembly, also Swiss parliament, is the federal bicameral legislature of Switzerland. The lower house is the 200-seat National Council and the upper house is the 46-seat Council of States. It meets in Bern in the Federal Palace.
Alain Berset is a Swiss politician who served as a Member of the Swiss Federal Council from 2012 to 2023. A member of the Social Democratic Party (SP/PS), he headed the Federal Department of Home Affairs from when he took office. Berset served as President of the Swiss Confederation for 2018 and 2023.
The Federal Diet of Switzerland was the legislative and executive council of the Old Swiss Confederacy and existed in various forms from the beginnings of Swiss independence until the formation of the Swiss federal state in 1848.
Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) rights in Switzerland are progressive by world standards. Social attitudes and the legal situation have liberalised at an increasing pace since the 1940s, in parallel to the situation in Europe and the Western world more generally. Legislation providing for same-sex marriage, same-sex adoption, and IVF access was accepted by 64% of voters in a referendum on 26 September 2021, and entered into force on 1 July 2022.
The Swiss people are the citizens of the multi-ethnic Swiss Confederation (Switzerland) regardless of ethno-cultural background or people of self-identified Swiss ancestry.
Ulrich "Ueli" Maurer is a Swiss politician who served as a Member of the Swiss Federal Council from 2009 to 2022. A member of the Swiss People's Party (SVP/UDC), he was President of the Swiss Confederation in 2013 and 2019. Formerly head of the Federal Department of Defence, Civil Protection and Sports (2009–2015), Maurer has headed the Federal Department of Finance from 2016 to 2022. From 2019 to 2022, he was the longest-serving sitting member of the Federal Council.
Karin Keller-Sutter is a Swiss politician who has served as a Member of the Swiss Federal Council since 2019. A member of FDP.The Liberals, she is the head of the Federal Department of Finance. Keller-Sutter previously served as President of the Council of States for the 2017–2018 term, and has served as vice president of Switzerland for the 2024 term since 1 January.
Women in Switzerland gained the right to vote in federal elections after a referendum in February 1971. The first federal vote in which women were able to participate was the 31 October 1971 election of the Federal Assembly. However it was not until a 1990 decision by the Federal Supreme Court of Switzerland that women gained full voting rights in the final Swiss canton of Appenzell Innerrhoden.
Hans Schatzmann was a Swiss politician who served as the fifth Chancellor of Switzerland.
Viola Patricia Amherd is a Swiss politician who has served as a Member of the Swiss Federal Council since 2019, and as President of the Swiss Confederation for 2024 since 1 January. She is the head of the Federal Department of Defence, Civil Protection and Sport. Amherd was a member of the Christian Democratic People's Party (CVP/PDC) before it merged with the Conservative Democratic Party (BDP/PBD) to form The Centre (DM/LC) in 2021, which she joined.
Federal elections were held in Switzerland on 22 October 2023 to elect all members of the National Council and Council of States. The elections were followed by elections to the Federal Council, Switzerland's government and collegial presidency, on 13 December.
By-elections to the Swiss Federal Council were held on 7 December 2022, after federal councillors Ueli Maurer (SVP-ZH) and Simonetta Sommaruga (SP-BE) announced they would leave the Council effective 31 December of the same year. The parliament elected Albert Rösti and Élisabeth Baume-Schneider respectively to replace them.
↑ Davier, Anne (2005). "Flore Revalles". In Kotte, Andreas (ed.). Dictionary of the Theater in Switzerland. Vol.3. Zürich: Chronos Verlag. p.1484. Retrieved 17 October 2012.
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