Hans Stöckli (born 12 April 1952) is a Swiss politician who served as

President of the Council of States This is a list of presidents of the Swiss Council of States, the upper house of the Federal Assembly. List {, border="1" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1" style="border-collapse: collapse" class=sortable , --- style="background:#efefef" ! Year ! ...

from 2019 to 2020. 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 For ...

(SP/PS), he was first elected to the Council of States for the

canton of Bern The canton of Bern or Berne (german: Kanton Bern; rm, Chantun Berna; french: canton de Berne; it, Canton Berna) is one of the 26 cantons forming the Swiss Confederation. Its capital city, Bern, is also the ''de facto'' capital of Switzerland. ...

2011 File:2011 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: a protester partaking in Occupy Wall Street heralds the beginning of the Occupy movement; protests against Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi, who was killed that October; a young man celebrate ...

. Stöckli was previously elected to the mayorship of Biel (1990–2010), Grand Council of Bern (2002–2004) and National Council (2004–2011).

Biography

Early career

Stöckli entered politics in 1979 winning election to the City Council of Biel. In 1990, he became mayor of the commune. In 2002, he moved to the Grand Council of Bern; two years later, he was elected to the National Council to replace Rudolf Strahm, who had been appointed as the Swiss price regulator.

Swiss Federal Assembly

He was reelected in

2007 File:2007 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Steve Jobs unveils Apple's first iPhone; TAM Airlines Flight 3054 overruns a runway and crashes into a gas station, killing almost 200 people; Former Pakistani Prime Minister of Pakistan, Pr ...

and then won election to the Council of States in

, succeeding

Adrian Amstutz Adrian Amstutz (born 2 December 1953) is a Swiss politician. He was a member of the Swiss National Council from the Canton of Berne from 2003 to 2019. Life Amstutz was born and lives in the rural village of Sigriswil. As a young man, he served ...

. He had written an essay in 1971 calling for the abolition of the body, which he said had grown stale at the time. In 2018, he was elected as First Vice President of the Council of States, which gave him the upper hand in the 2019 election for the presidency. He was indeed elected on 2 December 2019 with 49 out of 51 votes as

alongside Alex Kuprecht as First Vice President. Kuprecht succeeded him the next year. From 2018, he chairs the committee of the federal popular initiative "Yes to protecting children and young adults from tobacco advertising", which was accepted in the federal vote on 13 February 2022. In 2022, the World Health Organization awarded him a World No Tobacco Day Award.

Personal life

Stöckli speaks all four official languages of Switzerland. He is married to Katharina Stöckli, a teacher.

References

External links

Swiss Parliament websiteOfficial website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Stöckli, Hans 1952 births Living people Social Democratic Party of Switzerland politicians Members of the Council of States (Switzerland) Presidents of the Council of States (Switzerland) Members of the National Council (Switzerland) People from Biel/Bienne