Mountain farmer Dettling climbs to the top of Switzerland’s largest party
Published: Saturday, Mar 23rd 2024, 16:30
Updated At: Saturday, Mar 23rd 2024, 15:30
Back to Live Feed
Marcel Dettling, who was elected as the new SVP President by the delegates on Saturday, has given the party leadership a new lease of life: the 43-year-old mountain farmer from Oberiberg SZ is down-to-earth, down-to-earth and conservative and fits the cliché of rural Switzerland celebrated by the SVP.
Dettling entered politics as a 17-year-old: he was one of the founding members of the Young SVP of the canton of Schwyz in 1998. The SVP, which today is clearly the strongest force in the canton of Schwyz, was not yet a member of the cantonal government, in which the CVP (now the center) had the majority.
Dettling was first elected to the cantonal parliament in 2008. In 2015, he surprisingly made the leap into the National Council. At the time, he ousted the only left-wing member of parliament from Schwyz, Andy Tschümperlin, who chaired the SP parliamentary group.
Already requested once
Dettling made a career for himself in the party: in 2018, he joined the SVP Switzerland's party leadership committee and has been Vice President since 2022 - alongside National Councillors Céline Amaudruz (GE) and Magdalena Martullo-Blocher (GR). Dettling could have become party president four years ago. However, the father of three children declined at the time out of consideration for his family.
Dettling was now ready for the office of party president. His children would need him less now than they did four years ago, he told the media. He now also knew what to expect as party president.
Proven as a campaign manager
The fact that Dettling proved himself as a campaign manager for the 2023 federal elections certainly contributed to this. Thanks to his many contacts with the cantonal parties, he got to know them - and they got to know him.
The new party president is often compared to Toni Brunner, who presided over the SVP from 2008 to 2016. Both are down-to-earth and affable farmers and not without mischief, and both quickly made a career for themselves within the party.
Dettling belongs to the conservative wing of the party. He takes a hard line on migration in particular. In addition to agriculture, his proposals in the National Council mainly concern the refugee system. As President, he wants to give the party a clear stance and direction, as he said.
However, Dettling caused a stir with his statements on global warming - although here, too, he basically took a position that is to be expected from a president of the SVP. With sentences such as "I'd rather it got warmer than colder", he showed his talent for radically simplifying complex issues and selling them to the people - and drawing the media's attention to his party.
©Keystone/SDA
English 
German 
French 
Spanish 
Arabic