MORITZ LEUENBERGER, NEW PRESIDENT OF THE

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 BERN 000008 SIPDIS SENSITIVE SIPDIS E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: PGOV PINR ECON SZ SUBJECT: MORITZ LEUENBERGER, NEW PRESIDENT OF THE SWITZERLAND 1.(U) Moritz Leuenberger, Federal Councilor and Minister of Environment, Transport, Energy & Communications, assumed the presidency of the Swiss Confederation on January 1 for the 2006 calendar year. Under Switzerland's constitutional system, the seven members of the Federal Council rotate into the presidency for a term of one year. As president, federal councilors perform ceremonial functions at home and abroad, but otherwise maintain their normal portfolios. Leuenberger, a Social Democrat and longest-serving member of the Federal Council, last served as president in 2001. He succeeds Defense Minister Samuel Schmid in this position. Significance for the United States -------------- 2.(SBU) A serving president is first among equals on the Federal Council, so few expect the direction of Swiss policy to change appreciably during Leuenberger's term. Still, a Swiss president can use his formal agenda-setting privileges and informal authority to steer matters in a particular direction. Samuel Schmid did this during his tenure, when in May of 2005 he convened an extraordinary meeting of the Federal Council to review Swiss relations with the United States. The outcome was on the whole positive. Schmid's Defense Ministry compiled a list of modest security measures for increased cooperation on Afghanistan, Iraq and Eastern Europe. The Department of Economic Affairs garnered Swiss government support to propose a bilateral Free Trade Agreement with the United States. The Justice Department moved incrementally to broaden law enforcement cooperation. And, not to be outdone, the Department of Foreign Affairs, upon the initiative of State Secretary Michael Ambuehl, pushed for its own "bilateral framework" for cooperation on security, democracy and human rights, and humanitarian assistance. (Comment: FM Micheline Calmy-Rey, also a socialist, was initially reticent about placing any emphasis on the U.S.-Swiss bilateral relationship, but swiftly jumped on the band wagon when she realized the remainder of the Federal Council supported it. End comment.) 3.(SBU) As a Social-Democrat (SP),Leuenberger is not likely to invest his own energy in the U.S.-Swiss bilateral relationship. The SP leadership supports eventual Swiss membership in the European Union; Leuenberger is likely to focus his energies there. That said, Leuenberger -- more a pragmatist than ideologue -- is unlikely to get in the way of modest improvements in U.S.-Swiss cooperation favored by his colleagues. The most significant such measure might be a Free Trade Agreement, which Leuenberger is thought to generally favor. 4.(SBU) Reinforcing low expectation of a "Leuenberger imprint" on Swiss policy over the coming year is his very low-key, even bland personality. He is also expected to step down from the Federal Council after the end of his presidency, meaning the jockeying is already beginning within the SP to find a replacement. Leuenberger has also been under steady attack from the right-populist Swiss People's Party (SVP),which at one point claimed that Leuenberger was too overwhelmed with his regular portfolio to assume the presidency. Conventional wisdom has it that SVP leader and current Justice Minister Christoph Blocher want to take over Leuenberger's department after he retires in order to carry out reforms which the SP has been reluctant to make: the weaning of Swisscom and the Swiss Post from public financial support, the reduction of red tape, and removal of old-line statist functionaries from the department's bureaucracy. Biographical Notes -------------- 5.(U) Born September 21, 1946 in Biel, Canton of Bern, Leuenberger has spent the majority of his life a resident of Zurich. He studied law at the University of Zurich 1966-1970 and received his degree and admission to the Zurich bar in ¶1972. He conducted his own law practice from 1972-1991 and led the Swiss Tenant's Association, 1986-1991. 6.(U) A member of the Social Democratic Party (SP) from 1969, he led the Zurich SP chapter, 1972-1980; was a Zurich Municipal Council member, 1972-1983; was elected to the National Council (lower house of parliament),1979-1995; and served as Zurich cantonal Justice & Home Affairs chief, 1991-1995. 7.(U) In 1995, the SP placed Leuenberger on the slate to assume one of the two SP position on the Federal Council. Leuenberger took the Environment, Transport, Energy & Communications. He served as President, under Switzerland's rotating system, in 2001 and, now, in 2006. BERN 00000008 002 OF 002 8.(U) Leuenberger is married to the architect Gret Loewensberg, and has two grown sons. Urban