Leandra Columberg (born 1999) is a Swiss politician who has served in the

Cantonal Council of Zürich The Cantonal Council of Zürich (german: Zürcher Kantonsrat) is the legislature of the canton of Zürich, in Switzerland. Zürich has a unicameral legislature. The Cantonal Council has 180 seats, with members elected every four years. Election ...

since 2019 as a member of the

Social Democratic Party The name Social Democratic Party or Social Democrats has been used by many political parties in various countries around the world. Such parties are most commonly aligned to social democracy as their political ideology. Active parties Fo ...

. First elected at age 19, she is the youngest cantonal councillor ever elected in Zürich and one of the youngest in all of Switzerland.

Biography

Leandra Columberg was born in 1999. She was raised in the town of

Dübendorf Dübendorf is a municipality in the district of Uster in the canton of Zürich in Switzerland. It is a suburb of Zürich in Switzerland with a population of about 30,000 (2021). It is the fourth largest city in the canton, after Zürich, Winte ...

in the Canton of Zürich, and attended high school in the neighboring town of

Uster Uster ( High Alemannic: ''Uschter'') is a town and the capital of the Uster District in the Swiss canton of Zürich. It is the third largest town in the canton of Zürich, with almost 35,000 inhabitants, and is one of the twenty largest towns ...

. Columberg was apolitical until age 16 when she studied for a year in the United States, where she was "shocked by

Donald Trump Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who served as the 45th president of the United States from 2017 to 2021. Trump graduated from the Wharton School of the University of ...

's aggressive

election campaign A political campaign is an organized effort which seeks to influence the decision making progress within a specific group. In democracies, political campaigns often refer to electoral campaigns, by which representatives are chosen or referen ...

" and became opposed to

right-wing populism Right-wing populism, also called national populism and right-wing nationalism, is a political ideology that combines right-wing politics and populist rhetoric and themes. Its rhetoric employs anti-elitist sentiments, opposition to the Estab ...

. In 2016, she joined the Young Socialists (JUSO) and the

(SP). A law student at the

University of Zürich The University of Zürich (UZH, german: Universität Zürich) is a public research university located in the city of Zürich, Switzerland. It is the largest university in Switzerland, with its 28,000 enrolled students. It was founded in 1833 ...

, Columberg works as a political campaigner for the Zürich SP and is on the board of the national JUSO organization and the SP branch in Dübendorf. Since 2018, she has also been the president of the JUSO branch in the

Zürcher Oberland The Zürcher Oberland ("Zurich highlands") in Switzerland, is the hilly south-eastern part of the canton of Zurich, bordering on the Toggenburg, including the districts of Uster, Hinwil, Pfäffikon as well as the Töss Valley as far as the di ...

. Columberg was elected to the

in the

2019 elections The following elections were scheduled to occur in 2019. The International Foundation for Electoral Systems has a calendar of upcoming elections around the world, and the National Democratic Institute also maintains a calendar of elections in coun ...

, placing fourth on the SP party list in the Uster constituency. Elected at age 19, she is the youngest person ever elected to the cantonal council, and one of the youngest elected in all of Switzerland. During her tenure, Columberg has advocated for more protections for LGBT people and for high school preparation courses. She has also pushed for providing free

menstrual hygiene products Feminine hygiene products are personal care products used during menstruation, vaginal discharge, and other bodily functions related to the vulva and vagina. Products that are used during menstruation may also be called menstrual hygiene product ...

in schools and for masks to be distributed to the people of the canton. As a member of the Swiss Union of Public Service Personnel, Columberg sits with the Trade Union Group in the Cantonal Council. In 2022, she was elected with a

dual mandate A dual mandate is the practice in which elected officials serve in more than one elected or other public position simultaneously. This practice is sometimes known as double jobbing in Britain and ''cumul des mandats'' in France; not to be confused ...

to the Dübendorf Municipal Council. Columberg was re-elected in the

2023 elections The following elections are scheduled to occur in 2023. The National Democratic Institute also maintains calendar of elections around the world * 2023 United Nations Security Council election * 2023 national electoral calendar * 2023 local electo ...

, placing second in her constituency. She was a member of the Audit Commission in her first term and is a member of the Justice and Public Safety Commission in her second term. In 2024, Columberg strongly opposed an "anti-chaotic initiative" pushed by the ruling Swiss People's Party in the cantonal council. The bill "demands that demonstrators and organizers have to foot the bill for police operations and damage caused", which Columberg argues could serve as a

chilling effect In a legal context, a chilling effect is the inhibition or discouragement of the legitimate exercise of natural and legal rights by the threat of legal sanction. A chilling effect may be caused by legal actions such as the passing of a law, the ...

to deter protests and would be "

collective punishment Collective punishment is a punishment or sanction imposed on a group for acts allegedly perpetrated by a member of that group, which could be an ethnic or political group, or just the family, friends and neighbors of the perpetrator. Because ind ...

Biography

References

Further reading