Preceded by Otto Stich Preceded by Samuel Schmid Children Manuel Lowensberg Succeeded by Simonetta Sommaruga | Preceded by Adolf Ogi Name Moritz Leuenberger Vice President Kaspar Villiger Preceded by Adolf Ogi | |
 | ||
Role Former Member of the Swiss Federal Council Spouse Gret Loewensberg (m. 2003) Party Social Democratic Party of Switzerland Previous office Member of the Swiss Federal Council (1995–2010) Similar People Joseph Deiss, Micheline Calmy‑Rey, Gret Loewensberg, Manuel Lowensberg, Ueli Maurer | ||
Vice President Micheline Calmy-Rey | ||
Switzerland: Statement 2009 UN Climate Change Summit
Moritz Leuenberger (born 21 September 1946) is a Swiss politician, lawyer, was a member of the Swiss Federal Council from 1995 to 2010 and President of the Confederation in 2001 and in 2006.
Contents
Leuenberger was elected to the Federal Council on 27 September 1995 as a member of the Social Democratic Party (SPS/PSS) from the Canton of Zürich. From 1991 to 1995, he was a member of the government of the Canton of Zurich.
Since 1995, Leuenberger has headed the Federal Department of Environment, Transport, Energy and Communications (Environment and Communications were added to the name of the department in 1998).
Leuenberger has been married to architect Gret Loewensberg since 2003.
At a ceremony in Brussels, the Community of European Railways and Union des Industries Ferroviaires Européennes presented the 2009 European Railway Awards on 20 January 2009. Leuenberger was presented with the Political Award for his work to build and maintain a sustainable transportation policy.
On 9 July 2010 Leuenberger announced he would leave the Federal Council as of 31 December 2010. At this time Hans-Rudolf Merz had been expected to resign as well and there were talks between the two about resigning together. Leuenberger's resignation came as a complete surprise. One month later, on 6 August 2010, Hans-Rudolf Merz also announced his resignation for October. This led to the situation that the parliament would have had to elect a new Federal Councillor both in September and November. To avoid this situation, Leuenberger then announced he would change his resignation to allow for just one election for both new Councillors.