Mattea Julia Meyer (; born 9 November 1987) is a Swiss politician who currently serves as member of the National Council for 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 Form ...

since 2015. Concurrently she co-chairs the

Social Democratic Party of Switzerland The Social Democratic Party of Switzerland (, SP; ), also called the Swiss Socialist Party (; , PS), is a List of political parties in Switzerland, political party in Switzerland. The SP has had two representatives on the Federal Council (Switzerl ...

together with

Cédric Wermuth Cédric Wermuth (; born 19 February 1986) is a Swiss politician who currently serves on the National Council (Switzerland), National Council for the Social Democratic Party of Switzerland since 2011. He currently also serves as co-president of t ...

. Previously, Meyer served on the

Cantonal Council of Zürich The Cantonal Council of Zürich () is the legislature of the Cantons of Switzerland, canton of Canton of Zürich, Zürich, in Switzerland. Zürich has a unicameral legislature. The Cantonal Council has 180 seats, with members elected every four ...

from 2011 to 2015.

Early life and education

Meyer was born 9 November 1987 in

Basel, Switzerland Basel ( ; ), also known as Basle ( ), ; ; ; . is a city in northwestern Switzerland on the river Rhine (at the transition from the High to the Upper Rhine). Basel is Switzerland's third-most-populous city (after Zurich and Geneva), with ...

to an agricultural engineer father and a kindergarten teacher mother. She was raised, together with her sister and brother, in Rothenfluh and

Winterthur Winterthur (; ) is a city in the canton of Zurich in northern Switzerland. With over 120,000 residents, it is the country's List of cities in Switzerland, sixth-largest city by population, as well as its ninth-largest agglomeration with about 14 ...

. She studied history, geography and political science at the

University of Zurich The University of Zurich (UZH, ) is a public university, public research university in Zurich, Switzerland. It is the largest university in Switzerland, with its 28,000 enrolled students. It was founded in 1833 from the existing colleges of the ...

between 2007 and 2015. She obtained a MSc in

Human Humans (''Homo sapiens'') or modern humans are the most common and widespread species of primate, and the last surviving species of the genus ''Homo''. They are Hominidae, great apes characterized by their Prehistory of nakedness and clothing ...

and

Economic Geography Economic geography is the subfield of human geography that studies economic activity and factors affecting it. It can also be considered a subfield or method in economics. Economic geography takes a variety of approaches to many different topi ...

from the University of Zurich in 2015. During her studies, she stayed for one semester at the University of Aix-Marseille where she experienced protests by the professors and students of the University.

Political career

From 2009 to 2013 she was Vice-President of the Young Socialists of Switzerland. From 2011 to 2015 she was a member of the Grand Council of the Canton of Zurich. In 2015 she was re-elected in her constituency with the best result of her party, but in April 2015, the cantonal party nominated her as a candidate for the 2015 National Council elections. Since the 30 November 2015, she represents the SP in the

National Council of Switzerland The National Council (; ; ; ) is a house of the Federal Assembly of Switzerland, representing the people. The other house, Council of States, represents the states, preventing more populous parts of the country overpowering the rest. As the p ...

and resigned as a cantonal councilor. In her first legislature in the National Council she was a member of the Finance Commission and the Immunity Commission of the National Council. In the parliamentary elections in 2019, Meyer was re-elected as a national councilor. In her second legislature she took a seat in the commission for health and social security (SGK) and remained in the immunity commission. In December 2019 Meyer announced that together with

, she would be a candidate for the presidency of the SP Switzerland. Succeeding Christian Levrat, they were elected on 17 October 2020.

Political positions

She is a left-wing politician and sees the SP much more defending so called left politics than the European

Social Democratic Social democracy is a Social philosophy, social, Economic ideology, economic, and political philosophy within socialism that supports Democracy, political and economic democracy and a gradualist, reformist, and democratic approach toward achi ...

sister parties of the SP. She promotes a welcoming approach towards the asylum seekers which she sees as a normal answer for a country which exports weapons to war zones. During the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

she demanded that the Federal and Cantonal (provincial) Governments announce their measures in a coordinated manner. She defends the liberty of expression and assumed a godparenthood of the

Belarus Belarus, officially the Republic of Belarus, is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by Russia to the east and northeast, Ukraine to the south, Poland to the west, and Lithuania and Latvia to the northwest. Belarus spans an a ...

ian political activist Anastasiya Mirontsava.

Personal life

Mattea Meyer is the partner of fellow SP politician Marco Kistler. The couple have two children, a daughter born in 2017 and in 2021.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Meyer, Mattea 1987 births 21st-century Swiss women politicians Living people Members of the National Council (Switzerland) 2023–2027 Members of the National Council (Switzerland) 2019–2023 Social Democratic Party of Switzerland politicians University of Zurich alumni Politicians from Basel-Stadt Leaders of political parties in Switzerland