Ruth Metzler

Ruth Metzler
Vice President of Switzerland
In office 1 January 2003 – 31 December 2003
President	Pascal Couchepin
Preceded by	Pascal Couchepin
Succeeded by	Samuel Schmid
Minister of Justice and Police
In office 1 January 1999 – 31 December 2003
Preceded by	Arnold Koller
Succeeded by	Christoph Blocher
Member of the Swiss Federal Council
In office 1 January 1999 – 31 December 2003
Preceded by	Arnold Koller
Succeeded by	Christoph Blocher
Personal details
Born	23 May 1964 Sursee, Switzerland
Political party	Christian Democratic People's Party
Alma mater	University of Fribourg

Ruth Metzler-Arnold (born 23 May 1964) is a Swiss politician and former member of the Swiss Federal Council (1999–2003).

She was elected to the Swiss Federal Council on 11 March 1999, as a member of the Christian Democratic People's Party from the Canton of Appenzell Innerrhoden. During her time in office she headed the Federal Department of Justice and Police. She won 14 referendums during her time in office.

On 10 December 2003, she became the third member of the council not to be reelected in the history of the Swiss Federal State. In the 2003 Federal Assembly elections, her party lost many voters and the Swiss People's Party became the largest party of Switzerland. The Swiss People's party then requested another seat in the Federal Council. In the elections for the Federal Council on 10 December, the Federal Assembly did not re-elect Ruth Metzler and elected Christoph Blocher instead, by 121 votes to 116 on the third round of voting. She challenged her CVP colleague Joseph Deiss for his seat, but lost by 138 to 96. Metzler kept her seat until the end of the year and Christoph Blocher succeeded her on 1 January 2004.

She published the memories of those years under the title "Grissini & Alpenbitter", 2004, ISBN 3-85882-388-0.

She was teaching between February 2004 and July 2004 at the University of St. Gallen a class called "Gestaltungsmöglichkeiten in der Politik" which can be translated as "scope for design in politics". Since April 2005 she has been working for the Swiss pharmaceutical company Novartis.

External links

• www.ruthmetzler.ch – personal website launched for the sale of her book
• Profile of Ruth Metzler with election results on the website of the Swiss Federal Council.

• Franz Xaver Bischof: Ruth Metzler in German, French and Italian in the online Historical Dictionary of Switzerland, 2007-11-27.