Adrian Amstutz
Encyclopedia
Swiss Council of States
The Council of States of Switzerland is the smaller chamber of the Federal Assembly of Switzerland, and is considered the Assembly's upper house. There are 46 Councillors....
from the Canton of Berne
Canton of Berne
The Canton of Bern is the second largest of the 26 Swiss cantons by both surface area and population. Located in west-central Switzerland, it borders the Canton of Jura and the Canton of Solothurn to the north. To the west lie the Canton of Neuchâtel, the Canton of Fribourg and Vaud. To the south...
.
Amstutz was born and lives in the rural village of Sigriswil
Sigriswil
Sigriswil is a municipality in the administrative district of Thun in the canton of Bern in Switzerland.-History:Archeological remains dating from the Late Neolithic and Bronze Age show that the area around Sigriswil has been inhabited as early as 5000 years ago...
. As a young man, he served in the elite parachute reconnaissance unit of the Swiss Air Force
Swiss Air Force
The Swiss Air Force is the air component of the Swiss Armed Forces, established on July 31, 1914, as part of the Army and as of January 1966 an independent service.In peacetime, Dübendorf is the operational Air Force HQ...
and won the 1978 Parachuting World Cup in the parachuting
Parachuting
Parachuting, also known as skydiving, is the action of exiting an aircraft and returning to earth with the aid of a parachute. It may or may not involve a certain amount of free-fall, a time during which the parachute has not been deployed and the body gradually accelerates to terminal...
/giant slalom
Giant Slalom skiing
Giant slalom is an alpine skiing discipline. It involves skiing between sets of poles spaced at a greater distance to each other than in slalom but less than in super G....
combination discipline. Trained as an architectural draftsman and head mason, he had to abandon plans for an academic education after marrying his girlfriend, and founded his own construction planning company instead.
In 1993, Amstutz entered politics as mayor
Mayor
In many countries, a Mayor is the highest ranking officer in the municipal government of a town or a large urban city....
of Sigriswil, joining the conservative Swiss People's Party
Swiss People's Party
The Swiss People's Party , also known as the Democratic Union of the Centre , is a conservative political party in Switzerland. Chaired by Toni Brunner, but spearheaded by Christoph Blocher, the party is the largest party in the Federal Assembly, with 58 members of the National Council and 6 of...
(SVP). In 1998, he was elected to the Grand Council of Bern
Grand Council of Bern
The Grand Council is the parliament of the Swiss canton of Bern.It consists of 160 members elected by proportional representation for a four-year term of office...
. He joined the National Council in 2003 and was re-elected in the 2007 elections
Swiss federal election, 2007
Elections to the Swiss Federal Assembly, the federal parliament of Switzerland, were held on Sunday, 21 October 2007. In a few cantons, a second round of the elections to the Council of States was held on 11 November, 18 November, and 25 November 2007...
, garnering more votes than any other candidate in the canton. In 2011, he won a close runoff election against the Social Democratic candidate, Ursula Wyss, to succeed Simonetta Sommaruga
Simonetta Sommaruga
Simonetta Sommaruga is a Swiss politician of the Social Democratic Party of Switzerland. She is a member of the Swiss Federal Council, the federal government of Switzerland, and head of the Federal Department of Justice and Police .- Early life :Born in Zug, Sommaruga grew up with two brothers and...
in the Council of States.
Unlike most of his colleagues from the Bernese branch of the SVP prior to the spin-off of the Conservative Democratic Party, Amstutz's politics match the far-right course of the national party, which has caused him to be considered as a potential candidate for the Swiss Federal Council
Swiss Federal Council
The Federal Council is the seven-member executive council which constitutes the federal government of Switzerland and serves as the Swiss collective head of state....
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