Micheline Calmy-Rey

Micheline Anne-Marie Calmy-Rey (born 8 July 1945) is a Swiss politician who served as a Member of the Swiss Federal Council from 2003 to 2011.

A member of the Social Democratic Party (SP/PS), she was the head of the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs during her tenure as a Federal Councillor.

Calmy-Rey was born in Sion in the canton of Valais on 8 July 1945 to Charles and Adeline Rey.

She received her diploma in 1963 in Saint-Maurice and a licence degree in political science at the Graduate Institute of International Studies, Geneva, in 1968.

While studying she married André Calmy; they have two children.

Calmy-Rey established a small enterprise in the book distribution business.

From 1981 to 1997 Calmy-Rey served as a representative in the Grand Conseil of the canton of Geneva as a member of the Social Democratic Party (PSS/SPS), and was president of the assembly during 1992–1993.

She was president of the Geneva section of the party from 1986 to 1990 and again from 1993 to 1997.

In 1997, Calmy-Rey was elected to the Conseil d'Etat of Geneva.

In 2001, she became head of the finance department and president of the Conseil d'Etat of the canton.

She was elected on 4 December 2002 to the Federal Council, heading the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs from 2003 to 2011.

Calmy-Rey is the fourth woman elected to the Federal Council in history.

She was also elected Vice-President of Switzerland, a post she held for the calendar year of 2006 and the calendar year of 2010.

Calmy-Rey supports Switzerland joining the European Union and she is an Eminent Member of the Sergio Vieira de Mello Foundation.

She was elected as president on 13 December 2006 by 147 votes.

However, by Swiss tradition, it was a foregone conclusion she would be elected.

She had been the longest-serving councillor not to have been president, and had served as vice-president for 2006.

As President of the Confederation, she presided over meetings of the Federal Council and carried out certain representative functions that would normally be handled by a head of state in other democracies, (though in Switzerland, the Federal Council as a whole is regarded as the head of state).

She was also the highest-ranking official in the Swiss order of precedence, and had the power to act on behalf of the whole Council in emergency situations.

However, in most cases she was merely prima inter pares, with no power above and beyond her six colleagues.

She had already handled most official visits abroad since being elected to the Federal Council; the head of the Department of Foreign Affairs traditionally carries out such visits.

She was President of the Swiss Confederation twice, in 2007 and 2011.

On 1 January 2007, Calmy-Rey became the second female president of the Confederation in history, the first having been her predecessor on the Federal Council, Ruth Dreifuss.

According to the BBC, Calmy-Rey was "widely criticised" for putting on a headscarf to meet Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on 19 March 2008, even though it was acknowledged that she was simply following proper social protocol.

While Socialist MP Liliane Maury Pasquier agreed that the Swiss representant had to respect foreign protocols, this sparked a negative remark from Socialist MP Maria Roth-Bernasconi.

Calmy-Rey was chosen as vice president for 2010, serving alongside Doris Leuthard.

On 8 December 2010, she was chosen, for the second time, as president for 2011 (by 106 votes out of 189, this being the smallest margin in Swiss history) – the first time two women held the post in succession.

Calmy-Rey is a member of the Council of Women World Leaders, an International network of current and former women presidents and prime ministers whose mission is to mobilize the highest-level women leaders globally for collective action on issues of critical importance to women and equitable development.

She announced in September 2011 that she would resign from the government in the following December.

From 2012 to 2013, Calmy-Rey was a member of the High-Level Advisory Council of the President of the 67th Session of the United Nations General Assembly, Serbia's then foreign minister Vuk Jeremić.

Calmy-Rey is a member of the Socialist party of Switzerland and positions herself as pro-European.

In May 2012 Calmy-Rey was appointed as invited professor et the University of Geneva (Global studies institute).

In February 2014 she stated that Switzerland should join the European Union to be included in the European political agenda on the continent.

Since 2016, Calmy-Rey has been a member of the board of the Global Leadership Foundation (chaired by FW de Klerk), an organisation that works to support democratic leadership, prevent and resolve conflict through mediation and promote good governance in the form of democratic institutions, open markets, human rights and the rule of law.

It does so by making available, discreetly and in confidence, the experience of former leaders to today's national leaders.

It is a not-for-profit organisation composed of former heads of government, senior governmental and international organization officials who work closely with heads of government on governance-related issues of concern to them.

She is a member of the board Geneva of GESDA (Geneva Science and Diplomacy Anticipator).

In 2016, she expressed concerns about the Brexit impact on the European sovereignty, but recommended that Switzerland opened up to Great Britain as the two countries now faced the same configuration towards the European political power.

The project SAFFA 2020 is also under her patronage and of the councillors (Bundesrat) Doris Leuthard, Simonetta Sommaruga and Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf.

In February 2020, Calmy-Rey joined around fifty former European prime ministers and foreign ministers in signing an open letter published by British newspaper The Guardian to condemn U.S. President Donald Trump’s Middle East peace plan, saying it would create an apartheid-like situation in occupied Palestinian territory.