Achille Casanova

Who is Achille Casanova?

Achille Casanova is a Swiss journalist and politician. He held the office of Vice-Chancellor of Switzerland between 1981 and 2005, and during this time became the first official spokesman for the Swiss Federal Council when that role was created on 1 September 2000.

Born in Zurich in 1941 but originating from the Italian-speaking canton Ticino, he first attended school in Lugano, before studying political science at the universities of Bern and Fribourg. He began working as a journalist for the national press agency of Switzerland, before joining the Swiss Italian Television RSI in 1966.

During his tenure, Achille Casanova worked with 26 different Federal Councillors, participated in over 1180 Federal Council sessions, and officiated under three different Chancellors. While he was a candidate for the office twice himself, the Swiss Federal Assembly elected other candidates every time.

Fluent in German, French, Italian and English, his resignation sparked a minor row over language representation within the Swiss Federal government, when his successor, Oswald Sigg, was named over several candidates from Swiss-French and Swiss-Italian regions. This was compounded by the fact that his office had initially been created in 1895 on an ad-hoc basis, to add a senior representative of the French and Italian speaking regions when both the Chancellor and the other Vice-chancellors came from German-speaking cantons.