Baselland Business 2/2023 English

About the person
Albert Rösti was elected to the Federal Council by the United
Federal Assembly on December 7, 2022. He took office as Head of
the Federal Department of the Environment, Transport, Energy
and Communications (DETEC) on 1 January 2023.
The native of Kandersteg attended high school in Thun and studied
agronomy at the ETH Zurich. In 1997, he obtained a doctorate.
In 2001 and 2002, he completed a Master of Business Administration
(MBA) at the University of Rochester in the USA.
Professionally, Rösti has worked as an agricultural teacher,
secretary general of the Canton of Bern's Department of Economic
Affairs and director of the Swiss Milk Producers, among
other positions. From 2013, he ran the "Büro Dr. Rösti", which
offered consulting services for business and politics. He also
held various board of directors’ mandates and was active in
various associations. Rösti is married and has two adult children.
He wanted to become a politician since he was a teenager, one
reads in the portraits about the son of a farmer's family. "My
father was very interested in politics and always commented on
everything," Rösti told the “Schweizer Illustrierte”, "that's
what shaped me."
Rösti began his political career in 2008 in the executive of
Uetendorf, where he was mayor from 2014. In 2011, he was elected
to the National Council, where he was primarily involved in
agriculture, energy policy and relations with the European
Union. From 2016 to 2020, Rösti was president of the SVP Switzerland.
Albert Rösti is regarded as a pragmatic politician who is willing
to engage in dialog and make compromises. He treats his
political opponents with respect and tries to build bridges. He
is also known for his humor and down-to-earth attitude and is
considered as a sociable person. However, this does not stop him
from expressing his party's stance in calm words, but being
tough on the issues.
"Our prosperity cannot be taken for granted," Rösti says on the
SVP's homepage. "We owe it to a capable population and our
proven state order: the free market economy, independence,
federalism and our unique direct democracy. Anyone who questions
these pillars of our success endangers our quality of life,
which we have worked hard to achieve over generations." This is
the attitude that Rösti represents and these are the values that
he stands for as a politician.
In March, after 100 days in office, he also clearly outlined how
he envisions his work as head of DETEC. Three points are at the
forefront of this:
• First, I want to push for a secure energy supply and, in
particular, a secure electricity supply, and I want to do so
without any blinkers.
• Secondly, I want to make policy for our entire country,
i.e., for the cities, the agglomerations, but also quite deliberately
for the rural regions and the mountain areas.
• And thirdly, I want to further develop the infrastructures
throughout Switzerland for the benefit of our country.
These are all clear messages from a politician who knows what he
wants. It will be interesting to see what Federal Councillor
Albert Rösti will say to the public at the Business Day.
Baselland Business 19