Sergio Salvioni (1927-2017) was a Swiss politician and a member of the Swiss Council of States 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 . ...

. He was the son of Arturo and Erminia Salvioni and grandnephew of Prof. Carlo Salvioni, professor of

philology Philology () is the study of language in oral and writing, written historical sources; it is the intersection of textual criticism, literary criticism, history, and linguistics (with especially strong ties to etymology). Philology is also defin ...

and

dialectology Dialectology (from Greek , ''dialektos'', "talk, dialect"; and , ''-logia'') is the scientific study of linguistic dialect, a sub-field of sociolinguistics. It studies variations in language based primarily on geographic distribution and their assoc ...

at the

University of Pavia The University of Pavia ( it, Università degli Studi di Pavia, UNIPV or ''Università di Pavia''; la, Alma Ticinensis Universitas) is a university located in Pavia, Lombardy, Italy. There was evidence of teaching as early as 1361, making it one ...

Personal and political life

Sergio Salvioni studied law at the Universities of Basel and Bern (1947–51), obtaining his doctorate in 1951 and completing specialised studies at the universities of Rome, Vienna and

Berkeley, California Berkeley ( ) is a city on the eastern shore of San Francisco Bay in northern Alameda County, California, United States. It is named after the 18th-century Irish bishop and philosopher George Berkeley. It borders the cities of Oakland and Emer ...

. In 1953 he obtained a patent as a lawyer and notary and started a law office and notary in

Locarno , neighboring_municipalities= Ascona, Avegno, Cadenazzo, Cugnasco, Gerra (Verzasca), Gambarogno, Gordola, Lavertezzo, Losone, Minusio, Muralto, Orselina, Tegna, Tenero-Contra , twintowns =* Gagra, Georgia * Karlovy Vary, Czech Republic ...

in 1962. In 1986, he was appointed by the Philippine government as legal representative in Switzerland for the recovery of funds (US$684 Million) deposited in the Swiss Confederation by the former Philippine President

Ferdinand Marcos Ferdinand Emmanuel Edralin Marcos Sr. ( , , ; September 11, 1917 – September 28, 1989) was a Filipino politician, lawyer, dictator, and kleptocrat who was the 10th president of the Philippines from 1965 to 1986. He ruled under martial ...

. This effort was successful, and it was honoured by the 15th Philippine President

Benigno Aquino III Benigno Simeon Cojuangco Aquino III (; February 8, 1960 – June 24, 2021), also known as Noynoy Aquino and colloquially as PNoy, was a Filipino politician who served as the 15th president of the Philippines from 2010 to 2016. The son of ...

with the "Presidential Medal of Merit" together with Mr. Moritz Leuenberger, former Federal Councillor and President of the Swiss Confederation and Mr. Guy Fontanel, former Member of the Swiss Parliament on 11.02.2014. Sergio Salvioni was a leading member of the radical wing of the Ticino's Free Democratic Party (FDP). He was a member of Ticino's Grand Council (1971–87), the

Swiss National Council The National Council (german: Nationalrat; french: Conseil national; it, Consiglio nazionale; rm, Cussegl naziunal) is the lower house of the Federal Assembly of Switzerland, the upper house being the Council of States. With 200 seats, the ...

(1983–91) and the

Swiss Council of States The Council of States (german: Ständerat, french: Conseil des États, it, Consiglio degli Stati, rm, Cussegl dals Stadis) is the upper house of the Federal Assembly of Switzerland, with the National Council being the lower house. It compri ...

(1991–95). He paved the way for the Gotthard AlpTransit project with the parliamentary motion "Railway line through the Alps" of 14 June 1984. He was member of the board of the Azienda elettrica ticinese (AET) from 1986 to 1989, and then President from 1989 to 1997. He was president of

Swissmetro ''Swissmetro'' is a proposed Swiss transportation system based on vacuum-train (also known as vactrain) technology. It was invented by Swiss engineer Rodolphe Nieth in 1974 and it is presently being promoted and developed as SwissMetro-NG ("NG" for ...

SA from 1995 to 2003, the purpose of which was to promote and develop the futuristic underground partial vacuum

magnetic levitation Magnetic levitation (maglev) or magnetic suspension is a method by which an object is suspended with no support other than magnetic fields. Magnetic force is used to counteract the effects of the gravitational force and any other forces. The ...

passenger transport system of Switzerland. Under his leadership, the technical and economic feasibility of

was confirmed in studies by the Swiss Federal Institutes of Technology (EPFL and ETHZ) and a consortium of Swiss Engineering and industrial companies. Despite this, the Swissmetro project was not realised. At this time, the Swiss federal government was already absorbed with other national infrastructure projects (Bahn 2000, Gotthard AlpTransit, etc.). New efforts are now being made by the SwissMetro-NG association (NG=New Generation) to promote a modern version of the original project.

References

External links

Interview with Sergio Salvioni, godfather of the Gothard, at RTS

{{DEFAULTSORT:Salvioni, Sergio Swiss politicians 1927 births 2017 deaths