Ueli Maurer
Ueli Maurer (politician) | |
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Born | 1 December 1950 Wetzikon, Switzerland |
Nationality | Swiss |
Ulrich "Ueli" Maurer [1] is a Swiss politician who served as President of the Swiss Confederation in 2013 and 2019. A member of the Swiss People's Party (SVP/UDC), he has been a Member of the Swiss Federal Council since 2009. Formerly head of the Federal Department of Defence, Civil Protection and Sports (2009–2015), Maurer has been head of the Federal Department of Finance since 2016.
Contents
National career and party presidency
In 1996, at party strongman Christoph Blocher behest,[2] Maurer was elected president of the Swiss People's Party. Not taken seriously at first[3] and parodied by TV comedian Viktor Giacobbo as Blocher's servile sycophant[4][5] so memorably that his taunted children regularly returned from school in tears,[6] his presidency saw the party double its voter base, establish itself in the French-speaking part of Switzerland and become the country's strongest political party. These successes have been largely credited to Maurer's leadership, who was able to make up a lack of charisma with astonishingly hard work[7], the imposition of strict party discipline, and a keen sense for promising populist issues (such as opposition to European integration, foreigners and political correctness. This did not stop him from attending the super-integrationist Bilderberger group meeting in 2019.
On 27 November 2008, the party's parliamentary group unanimously nominated both Maurer and Blocher as candidates to succeed Schmid as Federal Councillor. With Blocher – who was ousted from the Federal Council in 2007 – considered unelectable by all other parties[8]. On 10 December 2008 Maurer was elected to the Federal Council in the third round of voting with 122 votes, a margin of a single vote.
Maurer was reelected as Federal Councillor on 8 December 2015, and on 11 December 2015 he was selected to become head of the Federal Department of Finance, with newly elected Guy Parmelin, a fellow member of the SVP/UDC, replacing his position as head of the Federal Department of Defence, Civil Protection and Sports. As Switzerland's Finance Minister, Maurer attended the 2017 G20 Hamburg summit, becoming the first Federal Councillor to attend a G20 summit
Ignorant or lying about CIA activities?
In March 2007, the CIA reportedly stationed Edward Snowden with diplomatic cover in Geneva, Switzerland, where he was responsible for maintaining computer-network security.[9] Assigned to the U.S. Permanent Mission to the United Nations, a diplomatic mission representing U.S. interests before the UN and other international organizations, Snowden received a diplomatic passport and a four-bedroom apartment near Lake Geneva. According to Greenwald, while there Snowden was "considered the top technical and cybersecurity expert" in that country and "was hand-picked by the CIA to support the president at the 2008 NATO summit in Romania".[10] Snowden described his CIA experience in Geneva as formative, stating that the CIA deliberately got a Swiss banker drunk and encouraged him to drive home. Snowden said that when the latter was arrested, a CIA operative offered to help in exchange for the banker becoming an informant.[11]
Ueli Maurer, as President of the Swiss Confederation for the year 2013, in June of that year publicly disputed Snowden's claims. "This would mean that the CIA successfully bribed the Geneva police and judiciary. With all due respect, I just can't imagine it," said Maurer.[12]
Connections
He attended the 2019 Bilderberg in Montreux, Switzerland.
Events Participated in
Event | Start | End | Location(s) | Description |
---|---|---|---|---|
Bilderberg/2019 | 30 May 2019 | 2 June 2019 | Switzerland Montreux | The 67th Bilderberg Meeting |
Munich Security Conference/2009 | 2009 | 2009 | Germany Munich Bavaria | The 45th Munich Security Conference |
Munich Security Conference/2012 | 3 February 2012 | 5 February 2012 | Germany Munich Bavaria | The 48th Munich Security Conference |
Munich Security Conference/2013 | 1 February 2013 | 3 February 2013 | Germany Munich Bavaria | The 49th Munich Security Conference |
Munich Security Conference/2015 | 6 February 2015 | 8 February 2015 | Germany Munich Bavaria | "400 high-ranking decision-makers in international politics, including some 20 heads of state and government as well as more than 60 foreign and defence ministers, met in Munich to discuss current crises and conflicts." |
WEF/Annual Meeting/2013 | 23 January 2013 | 27 January 2013 | World Economic Forum Switzerland | 2500 mostly unelected leaders met to discuss "leading through adversity" |
WEF/Annual Meeting/2015 | 21 January 2015 | 24 January 2015 | World Economic Forum Switzerland | Attended by a lot of people. This page lists only the 261 "Public Figures". |
WEF/Annual Meeting/2016 | 20 January 2016 | 23 January 2016 | World Economic Forum Switzerland | Attended by over 2500 people, both leaders and followers, who were explained how the Fourth Industrial Revolution would changed everything, including being a "revolution of values". |
WEF/Annual Meeting/2017 | 17 January 2017 | 20 January 2017 | World Economic Forum Switzerland | 2950 known participants, including prominently Bill Gates. "Offers a platform for the most effective and engaged leaders to achieve common goals for greater societal leadership." |
WEF/Annual Meeting/2019 | 22 January 2019 | 25 January 2019 | World Economic Forum Switzerland | "The reality is that we are in a Cold War [against China] that threatens to turn into a hot one." |
WEF/Annual Meeting/2020 | 21 January 2020 | 24 January 2020 | World Economic Forum Switzerland | This mega-summit of the world's ruling class and their political and media appendages happens every year, but 2020 was special, as the continuous corporate media coverage of COVID-19 started more or less from one day to the next on 20/21 January 2020, coinciding with the start of the meeting. |
References
- ↑ Eidgenössische Bundeskanzlei: Der Bund kurz erklärt, Seite 63. Erschienen 2009.
- ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20110707003705/http://sc.tagesanzeiger.ch/dyn/news/schweiz/806915.html
- ↑ http://www.bernerzeitung.ch/schweiz/standard/Ueli-Maurer--Unterwegs-im-Dienste-der-Partei/story/13047463
- ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20110707003705/http://sc.tagesanzeiger.ch/dyn/news/schweiz/806915.html
- ↑ http://www.nzz.ch/nachrichten/schweiz/der_favorit_1.1300952.html
- ↑ http://www.nzz.ch/nachrichten/schweiz/der_favorit_1.1300952.html
- ↑ http://www.nzz.ch/nachrichten/schweiz/der_favorit_1.1300952.html
- ↑ http://www.swissinfo.org/eng/front/Maurer_joins_Blocher_in_race_for_cabinet_seat.html?siteSect=105&sid=10024492
- ↑ https://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2013/06/10/190293209/who-is-edward-snowden-the-nsa-leaker
- ↑ Glenn Greenwald, No Place to Hide page 43
- ↑ http://www.handelszeitung.ch/politik/wie-die-cia-sich-genf-bankdaten-beschaffte
- ↑ https://www.reuters.com/article/2013/06/16/us-usa-security-switzerland-snowden-idUSBRE95F09120130616