Irène Kälin (born 6 February 1987 in

Lenzburg Lenzburg is a town in the central region of the Switzerland, Swiss canton of Aargau and is the capital of the Lenzburg District. The town, founded in the Middle Ages, lies in the Seetal, Seetal valley, about 3 kilometres south of the Aare river. L ...

Aargau Aargau ( ; ), more formally the Canton of Aargau (; ; ; ), is one of the Canton of Switzerland, 26 cantons forming the Switzerland, Swiss Confederation. It is composed of eleven districts and its capital is Aarau. Aargau is one of the most nort ...

; originally from

Einsiedeln Einsiedeln () is a municipalities of Switzerland, municipality and Districts of Switzerland#Schwyz, district in the canton of Schwyz in Switzerland known for its monastery, the Benedictine Einsiedeln Abbey, established in the 10th century. Histor ...

) is a

Swiss Swiss most commonly refers to: * the adjectival form of Switzerland * Swiss people Swiss may also refer to: Places * Swiss, Missouri * Swiss, North Carolina * Swiss, West Virginia * Swiss, Wisconsin Other uses * Swiss Café, an old café located ...

politician of the

Green Party A green party is a formally organized political party based on the principles of green politics, such as environmentalism and social justice. Green party platforms typically embrace Social democracy, social democratic economic policies and fo ...

Life and career

Studies and professional career

Kälin earned her ''

Matura or its translated terms (''mature'', ''matur'', , , , , ', ) is a Latin name for the secondary school exit exam or "maturity diploma" in various European countries, including Albania, Austria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech ...

'' at the Gymnasium Leonhard in

Basel Basel ( ; ), also known as Basle ( ), ; ; ; . is a city in northwestern Switzerland on the river Rhine (at the transition from the High Rhine, High to the Upper Rhine). Basel is Switzerland's List of cities in Switzerland, third-most-populo ...

in 2007. In 2009, she started her Islamic and religion studies 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 ...

and obtained a

Bachelor of Arts A Bachelor of Arts (abbreviated B.A., BA, A.B. or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is the holder of a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the liberal arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts deg ...

in 2013. In 2014, she joined the master's programme ''Religionskulturen'' of the

University of Bern The University of Bern (, , ) is a public university, public research university in the Switzerland, Swiss capital of Bern. It was founded in 1834. It is regulated and financed by the canton of Bern. It is a comprehensive university offering a br ...

, where she wrote a dissertation about the state recognition of

Islam Islam is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the Quran, and the teachings of Muhammad. Adherents of Islam are called Muslims, who are estimated to number Islam by country, 2 billion worldwide and are the world ...

. She worked as a trade unionist for

Unia ''Unia'' (), released on 25 May 2007, is the fifth full-length studio album by the power metal band Sonata Arctica, following the album '' Reckoning Night''. The first single from the album was " Paid in Full", released on 27 April 2007. This is ...

Aargau from 2015 to 2016 and is now the chairwoman of ArbeitAargau, the umbrella organisation of employees in the canton.

Political career

From January 2010 to November 2017, Kälin sat in the

Grand Council of Aargau The Grand Council of Aargau () is the legislature of the Cantons of Switzerland, canton of Aargau, in Switzerland. Aargau has a unicameral legislature. The Grand Council has 140 seats, with members elected every four years. The most recent ele ...

, where she served as the vice-chairwoman of three committees: the Committee for Responsibility Planning and Finance (2010–2013), the Naturalization Committee (2013–2015) and the Committee for Environment, Building, Transport, Energy and Land Use Planning (2013–2015); besides, she became a member of the Business Examination Committee in 2017. Moreover, she was the co-chairwoman of the

group in the Grand Council. Kälin was the vice-chairwoman of the Green Party of Switzerland from 2012 to 2014. In the 2015 federal election, Kälin stood for the National Council and the Council of States but was defeated by 2,500 votes by Jonas Fricker. On 27 November 2017, she replaced the resigning Fricker in the National Council as she was listed second on the party's electoral list. She retained her seat in the 2019 federal election and was appointed as the second vice-chairwoman of the National Council for the year 2019–20. After having served as the first vice president in the legislature 2020-2021, she assumed as the President of the National Council in November 2021.

Political positions

In Parliament, Kälin has advocated for

gender equality Gender equality, also known as sexual equality, gender egalitarianism, or equality of the sexes, is the state of equal ease of access to resources and opportunities regardless of gender, including economic participation and decision-making, an ...

, ecology and animal welfare as well as the state recognition of

and supported the

anti-nuclear movement The Anti-nuclear war movement is a new social movements, social movement that opposes various nuclear technology, nuclear technologies. Some direct action groups, environmental movements, and professional organisations have identified them ...

. In April 2022 she and other Swiss parliamentarians were invited to Ukraine where they informed themselves on the situation of the ongoing

Russian invasion of Ukraine On 24 February 2022, , starting the largest and deadliest war in Europe since World War II, in a major escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian War, conflict between the two countries which began in 2014. The fighting has caused hundreds of thou ...

Private life

In 2013, Kälin entered into a legal union with journalist Werner De Schepper. In 2018 they moved from Lenzburg to

Oberflachs Oberflachs is a former municipalities of Switzerland, municipality in the district of Brugg (district), Brugg in Canton Aargau in Switzerland. It is located about 6 km south west of the town of Brugg, Aargau, Brugg. On 1 January 2014 the f ...

, Aargau. In the same year she gave birth to their first son whom she takes to the National Council during parliamentary debates. In 2023, her separation from De Schepper was announced, and Kälin moved to

Aarau Aarau (, ) is a List of towns in Switzerland, town, a Municipalities of Switzerland, municipality, and the capital of the northern Swiss Cantons of Switzerland, canton of Aargau. The List of towns in Switzerland, town is also the capital of the d ...

.''Irène Kälin hat sich getrennt und zieht nach Aarau.''
In: ''

Aargauer Zeitung ''Aargauer Zeitung'' (English: ''Aargauer Newspaper'') is a Swiss German-language daily newspaper, published by AZ Medien Gruppe, Aarau, Aargau. History and operations ''Aagauer Zeitung'' was created in 1996 through the merger of the '' Aa ...

'', 31. März 2023. She also speaks

Persian Persian may refer to: * People and things from Iran, historically called ''Persia'' in the English language ** Persians, the majority ethnic group in Iran, not to be conflated with the Iranic peoples ** Persian language, an Iranian language of the ...

and

Arabic Arabic (, , or , ) is a Central Semitic languages, Central Semitic language of the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family spoken primarily in the Arab world. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) assigns lang ...

References

External links

Irène Kälin's official website
*
Irène Kälin
on the website of the

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kalin, Irene Presidents of the National Council (Switzerland) 21st-century Swiss women politicians 21st-century Swiss women Swiss trade unionists Women trade unionists Green Party of Switzerland politicians Aargau politicians Women members of the National Council (Switzerland) Members of the National Council (Switzerland) 2019–2023 University of Zurich alumni People from Lenzburg People from Einsiedeln 1987 births Living people