Flavio Cotti (18 October 193916 December 2020) was a Swiss politician who served as member of the Federal Council from 1986 to 1999. He was a member of the Christian Democratic People's Party from the

canton of Ticino Ticino (), sometimes Tessin (), officially the Republic and Canton of Ticino or less formally the Canton of Ticino,, informally ''Canton Ticino'' ; lmo, Canton Tesin ; german: Kanton Tessin ; french: Canton du Tessin ; rm, Chantun dal Tessin . ...

. In the 1990s, Cotti led the Swiss government's unsuccessful attempts to further Switzerland's political integration into the

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational political and economic union of member states that are located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of and an estimated total population of about 447million. The EU has often been des ...

. He was

President of the Confederation The president of the Swiss Confederation, also known as the president of the Confederation or colloquially as the president of Switzerland, is the head of Switzerland's seven-member Federal Council, the country's executive branch. Elected by ...

in 1991 and 1998 and headed the departments of

Home Affairs An interior ministry (sometimes called a ministry of internal affairs or ministry of home affairs) is a government department that is responsible for internal affairs. Lists of current ministries of internal affairs Named "ministry" * Ministry ...

and

Foreign Affairs ''Foreign Affairs'' is an American magazine of international relations and U.S. foreign policy published by the Council on Foreign Relations, a nonprofit, nonpartisan, membership organization and think tank specializing in U.S. foreign policy and ...

Early life and political career

Cotti was born in

Muralto Muralto is a municipality in the district of Locarno, in the canton of Ticino in Switzerland. Geography Muralto has an area, , of . Of this area, or 71.7% is used for agricultural purposes, while or 3.3% is forested. Of the rest of the lan ...

. After studies of law in

Fribourg , neighboring_municipalities= Düdingen, Givisiez, Granges-Paccot, Marly, Pierrafortscha, Sankt Ursen, Tafers, Villars-sur-Glâne , twintowns = Rueil-Malmaison (France) , website = www.ville-fribourg.ch , Location of , Location of () () o ...

, he practiced law in Locarno and pursued a political career in his native

Ticino Ticino (), sometimes Tessin (), officially the Republic and Canton of Ticino or less formally the Canton of Ticino,, informally ''Canton Ticino'' ; lmo, Canton Tesin ; german: Kanton Tessin ; french: Canton du Tessin ; rm, Chantun dal Tessin . ...

. In 1962, he headed the newly founded ''Partito popolare democratico ticinese''. In 1981 he was elected president of the cantonal Christian Democratic Party, and served as president of the national party from 1981 to 1984. Cotti was a member of the cantonal parliament from 1962 to 1975. He was elected to the cantonal government of Ticino in 1975. In 1983, he was elected to the national parliament's lower house, the National Council.

Federal Council

Cotti was elected to the

Federal Council of Switzerland The Federal Council (german: Bundesrat; french: Conseil fédéral; it, Consiglio federale; rm, Cussegl federal) is the executive body of the federal government of the Swiss Confederation and serves as the collective head of state and governme ...

on 10 December 1986, succeeding Alphons Egli, and resigned on 30 April 1999. During his time in office he headed the

Federal Department of Home Affairs The Federal Department of Home Affairs (FDHA, , french: Département fédéral de l'intérieur, links=no, , rm, ) is a department of the federal administration of Switzerland and serves as the Swiss ministry of the interior. As of 2012, it is ...

(1987–1993) and the

Federal Department of Foreign Affairs The Federal Department of Foreign Affairs (FDFA, german: Eidgenössisches Departement für auswärtige Angelegenheiten, french: Département fédéral des affaires étrangères, it, Dipartimento federale degli affari esteri, rm, ), so name ...

(1994–1999). He was

twice, first in 1991 and then again in 1998. Cotti's political philosophy was one of optimistic

globalism Globalism refers to various patterns of meaning beyond the merely international. It is used by political scientists, such as Joseph Nye, to describe "attempts to understand all the interconnections of the modern world—and to highlight patterns ...

, and he liked to be seen as a visionary and as an '' homme des lettres''. A convinced

Europhile A Europhile is a person who is fond of, admires, or loves European culture, society, history, food, music etc.

, Cotti was instrumental in bringing about the Federal Council's 1992 decision to seek Swiss membership of the

– a move that backfired a few months later when Swiss voters rejected membership in the

European Economic Area The European Economic Area (EEA) was established via the ''Agreement on the European Economic Area'', an international agreement which enables the extension of the European Union's single market to member states of the European Free Trade Ass ...

, blocking further Swiss integration with the EU. In this and other areas, Cotti's visions proved incompatible with Switzerland's complicated and slow

consensus politics Democracy (From grc, δημοκρατία, dēmokratía, ''dēmos'' 'people' and ''kratos'' 'rule') is a form of government in which the people have the authority to deliberate and decide legislation (" direct democracy"), or to choose gov ...

, which earned him the nickname of "minister of announcements" (''Ankündigungsminister''). As Switzerland's foreign minister since 1994, Cotti helped salvage Switzerland's relationship with the EU by negotiating and concluding a series of treaties that now govern Swiss–EU relations. He led Swiss negotiations to settle claims of Holocaust survivors against Switzerland and Swiss banks. He was a strong advocate of Switzerland's accession to the

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and international security, security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be ...

, which voters only agreed to after his time in office in 2002. Cotti also prominently represented the country abroad, gaining international recognition as the first Swiss president of the

OSCE The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) is the world's largest regional security-oriented intergovernmental organization with observer status at the United Nations. Its mandate includes issues such as arms control, prom ...

Post-ministerial life

After retiring from politics, Cotti served in leading advisory positions in major Swiss companies, including on the board of

Credit Suisse Credit Suisse Group AG is a global investment bank and financial services firm founded and based in Switzerland. Headquartered in Zürich, it maintains offices in all major financial centers around the world and is one of the nine global " ...

. Cotti died from

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was COVID-19 pandemic in Hubei, identified in Wuhan, China, in December ...

on 16 December 2020, at the age of 81, during the

COVID-19 pandemic in Switzerland The COVID-19 pandemic in Switzerland is part of the worldwide pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 () caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (). The virus was confirmed to have spread to Switzerland on 25 February 20 ...

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Cotti, Flavio 1939 births 2020 deaths Members of the Federal Council (Switzerland) People from Ticino Swiss Roman Catholics Foreign ministers of Switzerland Deaths from the COVID-19 pandemic in Switzerland 20th-century Swiss politicians