Marc-Émile Ruchet

Marc -Emile Ruchet ( born 14 September 1853 in Saint- Saphorin- sur -Morges, † July 13, 1912 in Bern, hometown entitled in Bex ) was a Swiss politician ( FDP). From 1882 to 1893 he was a member of the Grand Council of the Canton of Vaud, Vaud then until 1899 the State Council. Twice he represented this State in the Senate, from 1887 to 1893 and again from 1896 until 1899. Ruchet in December 1899 was elected to the Federal Council, where he remained until shortly before his death. In the years 1905 and 1911 he was President.

Biography

Professional and policy

Ruchet was the son of a teacher. After attending the grammar school in Lausanne, he studied law and became a licentiate in 1875. It was followed by a stay abroad in Heidelberg, 1878, he graduated with a patent attorney from. The internship he had graduated in the law firm of Louis Ruchonnet. Ruchet, a member of the left-liberal fraternity Helvatia and the Masonic Lodge La Liberté, took Ruchonnets law firm, as it was in 1881 elected to the Federal Council. Between 1886 and 1888 was Ruchet Board of Directors of the railway company Suisse Occidentale -Simplon - and 1890-1899 Board of Directors of Jura - Simplon railway.

His political career began in 1882 when he was elected to the Grand Council of the Canton of Vaud. He was its president in 1887 and was part of this until 1893. Also in 1887 the first appointment to the Senate. Ruchet represented his State in the Federal Parliament until 1893 and a second time by 1896 until 1899. Council of State as he was from 1894 to 1899 Member of the Vaud cantonal government. During this time he was faced with the education and Churches and was involved in the introduction of free kindergarten. He also developed a conservation law, the other cantons and states served as a model later. In the Swiss army Ruchet was lieutenant colonel of military justice.

Bundesrat

At the end of 1899 two seats in the Federal Council were free, the by-election by the Federal Assembly was held on December 14. While the choice of Robert Comtesse successor Adrien Lachenals was undisputed first was Gustave Ador as the leading candidate to succeed Eugène Ruffy. However, when Ador renounced his candidacy, instead Ruchet was proposed. Rather surprisingly, he was already in the first ballot 124 of 167 valid votes. Apart from brief interruptions, he led mainly the Department of Home Affairs. In 1904, he was temporarily the Tax and Customs Department, in the years 1905 and 1911, he served as Federal President of the then practice according to the Political Department and was thus foreign minister.

During the tenure Ruchets important legal innovations came into force. The revised in 1902 Forest Police Law wrote in the whole country before the preservation of forests. With this law, which applied throughout Europe as a model, the landscapes should be protected from urbanization and preserved as a result of the national identity of Switzerland. 1905 was one of the founders of the organization Ruchet Swiss Heritage, moreover, it reached an increase of cultural subsidies. As Vaud State, he had still resisted the financial support of primary schools by the federal government because he had considered this as interference in the cantons. As Bundesrat he changed his position and was able to convince the voters of the necessity of submission, which was adopted on 23 November 1902, 76.3 % of the vote.

On 5 July 1908, he suffered an electoral defeat, when the people agreed with 63.5 % of an initiative that called for a ban absinthe. Ruchet would have preferred to regulate a ban on food Act rather than on the constitutional level. However, he continued to the will of the people and let work out a design law, which came into force in October 1910. In his years in office as president and foreign minister he put no special accents. This, however, quite in keeping with the then usual practice, when the Swiss foreign policy largely limited to the maintenance of trade relations.

After the death of his wife in November 1909 Ruchet himself suffered increasingly from health problems. Several times he had to interrupt his duties. On July 9, 1912 he announced his resignation, four days later, he died at the age of 58 years.