VZCZCXRO1567
RR RUEHDA RUEHDF RUEHFL RUEHKW RUEHLA RUEHLN RUEHLZ RUEHROV RUEHSR
RUEHVK RUEHYG
DE RUEHSW #0008/01 0031611
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 031611Z JAN 06
FM AMEMBASSY BERN
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 1282
INFO RUEHZL/EUROPEAN POLITICAL COLLECTIVE

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