Hans-Rudolf Merz
Hans -Rudolf Merz ( born November 10, 1942 in Herisau; homeland justified in Beinwil ) is a Swiss politician ( FDP). He was from 2003 to 2010 the Federal Council and head of the Federal Department of Finance ( FDF). During 2009, he served as president.
Training
Merz studied economics at the University of St. Gallen ( HSG), where he worked as an assistant and in 1971 received his doctorate.
Profession
From 1977 to 2003 he worked as an independent management consultant in Europe, North and South America, South Africa and in the Arab world operates. At the same time he was a member of the Board of Directors of several Swiss companies. As a consultant, he worked on heavyweight with the recruitment and development of top management and with the company development. His professional involvement with the apartheid regime in South Africa, so Merz was sitting among others on the Board of Herisauer company Huber Suhner, the gas masks provided to the Government at the Cape, or advised Stephan Schmidheiny asbestos company Everit he commented in 2002 with " who much and often abroad works, know that you restrain himself as a businessman in political matters and must concentrate on his professional duties. " Further manifestations of the apartheid regime cost him in the same year the promising candidacy killed FDP presidium. The results of a National Science Foundation study on the processing of the relations between Switzerland and South Africa were still across not commented on by the parties settled parliamentary pressure from the Federal Council, which in those days, Merz and Christoph Blocher sat also the founder of the Southern as apartheid friendly applicable Africa Working Group.
1992 Merz was elected to the Board of Directors of Ausserrhodener Kantonalbank, which was already at this time in distress. The following year he was elected Chairman. He designed his first annual report, a paper on the " vision of a regional universal bank ", a small bank that offers all banking services. In 1994, the Cantonal was partially privatized through the conversion into a public limited company in which the Canton of Appenzell Outer Rhodes retained the majority. The population of the canton had to vote on the partial privatization, since she was a rural community of the legislature of the canton. On 22 December 1995, the Ausserrhodener Kantonalbank of the Swiss Bank Corporation (now UBS) was bought.
Positions and political functions
Secretary of the FDP Canton of St. Gallen
Merz was an early politically active. Shortly after the suppression of the Prague democracy movements by the Warsaw Pact army in August 1968, he helped a fellow artist in a rental car from Prague to flee to Switzerland. After his studies, Hans -Rudolf Merz worked from 1969 to 1974 as secretary of the Free Democratic Party in the canton of St. Gallen. He also served as executive director of the industry association Appenzell Ausserrhoden. Later he chaired the interim Einwohnerrat of Herisau and managed the operations of the sports center Herisau.
Councillor of the Canton of Appenzell Ausserrhoden
After a long time without any political activity Merz ran for the Senate seat of the canton of Appenzell Ausserrhoden. The official candidates of FDP were Finance Director Marianne Kleiner and Landammann Hans Höhener. Merz, however, was supported by the Swiss People's Party. At the last rural municipality in the canton of Appenzell Ausserrhoden 27th April 1997, Merz was the winner. He presided in the Senate, the Finance Committee and was a member of the Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Committees. He also was a member of the OSCE delegation.
Missed FDP presidential
2002 Merz rose as a representative of the Legal Liberalism in the race for the party presidium one. The public reaction to the statements " There were also many people who saw apartheid in terms of education, not the breed " but in the day indicator and " For me, the apartheid that time was not an issue " in Sunday's view led the force as Kronfavoriten Merz its candidacy retreat.
Bundesrat
After the parliamentary elections on 19 October 2003 was followed on 10 December 2003, the complete re-election of the Federal Council. A seat was reassigned because Kaspar Villiger has resigned. The claim of the FDP to the successor was undisputed, so that Christine Beerli and Hans -Rudolf Merz was nominated as the successor of Villiger. The Green Party of Switzerland recommended Christine Beerli for election. The other groups left nothing to choose between the two candidates. Merz was elected on the second ballot with 127 votes to 96. This and a few hours earlier was deselected by Ruth Metzler led to criticism concerning unequal treatment of women.
The Federal Council elections in 2007 of 12 December 2007 Merz was confirmed with the best result of all candidates for a further term. He received 213 out of 233 valid votes of the Federal Assembly. On 13 December 2007 Hans -Rudolf Merz was elected with 193 out of 211 valid votes as Vice-President of the Federal Council for the year 2008.
On 10 December 2008, the United Federal Assembly elected on the Federal Election 2008 Hans -Rudolf Merz with 185 valid votes of 209 on the Federal President for the year 2009. Celebration of the election took place in Herisau.
On August 6, 2010 Hans -Rudolf Merz announced in Bern on his retirement from the Federal Council, whose date he specified on 28 September 2010 to 28 October 2010. His seat took over on 22 September 2010, the newly elected in the Federal Councillor Johann Schneider -Ammann (FDP), the office of Head of the Federal Department of Finance after castling offices, the previous head of the Federal Police and Department of Justice Eveline Widmer -Schlumpf.
Family and Personal
Hans -Rudolf Merz is married to the artist Roswitha Merz. It is located in Herisau and have three grown sons. Merz is a citizen of Beinwil in the canton of Aargau.
He speaks German, French, Spanish, English, Italian and Russian.
On the evening of 20 September 2008 Merz suffered a cardiovascular arrest and was taken to hospital Herisau, where you reanimated him and then moved into the Kantonsspital St. Gallen. That same evening his five bypasses were laid by Thierry Carrel in the Bernese University Hospital. After his recovery and a cure Merz has taken over the Federal Department of Finance again on November 3, 2008.
Publications
- Financial and administrative capacity in public and commercial perspective, with special emphasis on government accounts of the cantons. St. Gallen 1971 ( dissertation)
- Until the National League. 40 years SC Herisau. Schlaepfer, Herisau 1982
- The extraordinary leader: essay on Elativität and elative personality. Ruegger, Grüsch, 1987, ISBN 3-7253-0297-9
- The Chief Magistrate and other tales from the Appenzell region. Schlaepfer, Herisau 1992, ISBN 3-85882-072-5