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Elisabeth Kopp, who in 1984 dealt with the accusations involving her husband to become the first woman elected to the Federal Council governing Switzerland – but who could not deal with another scandal a few years later, also had an affair with her husband, and resigned when she looked like it. the country’s first female president – died on April 7 in Zumikon, southeast of Zurich. He is 86 years old.
His death was announced on April 14 by the federal chancellor, The Associated Press reported. The cause is undetermined.
Mrs. Kopp has been mayor of Zumikon for a decade and has served two terms in Parliament when her retirement leaves open a seat on the seven-member Federal Council, which runs the main government departments and whose members serve one-year terms. as the president of the country.
Ms. Kopp is a member of the more left-wing, conservative Radical Democratic Party, known for her work on environmental issues as well as for working on women’s issues, and polls show her to be popular. But efforts to elevate her to the council resulted in her political opponents harassing her husband, Hans Kopp, a lawyer.
The attack upset Mrs Kopp’s supporters.
“Swiss feminists and liberal politicians have reacted with outrage to reports that the husband of Switzerland’s first female candidate for the country’s highest political office was suspended from practicing law for six months in 1972 after being accused of ripping off a secretary at the firm,” The Guardian. reported in 1984.
“In 1971,” the newspaper continued, “lawyers at Mr. Kopp’s firm said that Mr. Kopp had punished wrongdoing in the office by using a bamboo cane on his foundation.”
The right to practice law was suspended for six months by the Supervisory Commission of Zurich lawyers. But the mudslinging backfired: In early October 1984, Mrs. Kopp won the election for the Council anyway, with Parliament voting 124 to 95 to choose her over the male candidate, Bruno Hunziker. Commentators at the time said efforts to undermine Ms. Kopp’s candidacy probably only strengthened it.
Her election is an important moment in the push for women’s equality in Switzerland, a country that has lagged behind most of Europe in the region; women did not gain the right to vote in federal elections there until 1971.
Ms. Kopp is the first woman to serve in the seven-member cabinet. She told the AP at the time that the election was a sign that “gender equality is now being taken very seriously.”
But, she said, being a woman in the predominantly male world of politics – only about a tenth of members of Parliament were women at the time – meant extra challenges.
“In politics, women have to be better than men if they want to succeed,” he said.
Each member of the council heads a federal department, and during her tenure, Ms. Kopp’s titles include minister of justice and minister of the interior. In 1988, it was his turn to become vice president, and he was duly elected by Parliament later that year. But he never took the post, because of another scandal involving his wife.
The report became clear that Mrs. Kopp, who was justice minister at the time, recently informed his wife that the company involved was the focus of a money laundering investigation and asked him to cut ties, doing so. He initially denied any impropriety — “I don’t like it if anyone thinks I might have committed or tolerated wrongdoing,” he said at the time — but he resigned from the board because of what he called “unbearable pressure.”
She eventually admitted to giving the information to her husband, and in 1989 she was indicted on charges of violating official secrets laws. During the trial in February 1990, admirers applauded him when he left the court every day. A Supreme Court jury acquitted him. Had he not resigned, he would have been president the same year.
Elisabeth Ikle was born on December 16, 1936 in Zurich to Max and Beatrix Ikle. His father was the director general of the Swiss National Bank, and his mother helped build a nursery school.
Mrs. Kopp was a skilled figure skater in her youth. He studied law at the University of Zurich and graduated with honors. He met Mr. Kopp while doing volunteer work on behalf of Hungarians who fled to Switzerland in 1956 after the Soviet Union crushed a popular uprising in Hungary.
As interior minister, Mrs Kopp has often been at the helm of the government on immigration – a controversial issue in Switzerland, especially as people from countries like Sri Lanka seek to come there. He is seen by some as taking an anti-immigrant stance, although he has said he is concerned about “fake” asylum seekers – people who want to move for economic reasons rather than because of political persecution.
“This leads to an increase in xenophobia,” he said in 1987, “which makes it more difficult for us to fulfill our human obligations.”
After her political career, Mrs. Kopp did postgraduate studies in European law and human rights law and worked in her husband’s law firm. Mr. Kopp died in 2009. Information on Mrs. Kopp’s survival was not immediately available.
The first woman to be president of Switzerland, Ruth Dreifuss, was elected in December 1998.
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