Elisabeth Kopp, who in 1984 overcame accusations involving her husband to grow to be the primary girl elected to Switzerland’s governing Federal Council — however who couldn’t overcome one other scandal a number of years later, additionally associated to her husband, and resigned when she had appeared more likely to be the nation’s first feminine president — died on April 7 in Zumikon, southeast of Zurich. She was 86.
Her dying was introduced on April 14 by the federal chancellery, The Associated Press reported. The trigger was not specified.
Mrs. Kopp had been mayor of Zumikon for a decade and had served two phrases in Parliament when a retirement opened up a seat on the seven-member Federal Council, which runs the principle authorities departments and whose members take turns serving a one-year time period because the nation’s president.
Mrs. Kopp was one of many extra left-leaning members of the conservative Radical Democratic Party, identified for her work on environmental points in addition to for advancing ladies’s causes, and polls confirmed her to be well-liked. But the hassle to raise her to the council prompted her political enemies to fire up grime on her husband, Hans Kopp, a lawyer.
The assaults riled Mrs. Kopp’s supporters.
“Swiss feminists and liberal politicians have reacted with indignation to press reports that the husband of Switzerland’s first woman candidate for the country’s highest political office was suspended from legal practice for six months in 1972 after charges that he spanked secretaries in his firm,” The Guardian reported in 1984.
“In 1971,” the newspaper continued, “a lawyer in Mr. Kopp’s firm said that Mr. Kopp had punished misdemeanors in the office by wielding a bamboo cane on bare bottoms.”
His proper to observe legislation was suspended for six months by a Zurich attorneys watchdog fee. But the mudslinging backfired: In early October 1984, Mrs. Kopp gained election to the council anyway, with Parliament voting 124 to 95 to pick her over a male candidate, Bruno Hunziker. Commentators at the time stated that the makes an attempt to undermine Mrs. Kopp’s candidacy most likely solely strengthened it.
Her election was an essential second within the push for girls’s equality in Switzerland, a rustic that had lagged behind most of Europe in that space; ladies didn’t acquire the correct to vote in federal elections there till 1971.
Mrs. Kopp was the primary girl to serve within the seven-member cupboard. She informed The A.P. at the time that her election was an indication that “equality of the sexes is taken seriously now.”
But, she stated, being a lady within the largely male universe of politics — solely a couple of tenth of the members of Parliament had been ladies at the time — meant further challenges.
“In politics, women must do better than men if they want to succeed,” she stated.
Each council member heads a federal division, and through her tenure Mrs. Kopp’s titles included justice minister and inside minister. In 1988, it was her flip to rotate into the vice presidency, and she or he was duly elected by Parliament late that 12 months. But she by no means took the submit, due to one other scandal associated to her husband.
Reports got here to mild that Mrs. Kopp, who was minister of justice at the time, had lately tipped off her husband that an organization he was concerned with was the main focus of a money-laundering investigation and urged him to chop his ties, which he did. She at first denied any impropriety — “I wouldn’t like one to think that I could have committed or tolerated wrongdoing,” she stated at the time — however she resigned from the council due to what she known as “unbearable pressure.”
She ultimately acknowledged offering info to her husband, and in 1989 she was indicted on prices of violating official secrecy legal guidelines. During her trial in February 1990, admirers applauded her as she left the courthouse every day. A Supreme Court jury acquitted her. Had she not resigned, she would have grow to be president that very same 12 months.
Elisabeth Ikle was born on Dec. 16, 1936, in Zurich to Max and Beatrix Ikle. Her father was a director basic of the Swiss National Bank, and her mom helped set up a nursery college.
Mrs. Kopp was a talented determine skater in her youth. She studied legislation at Zurich University and graduated with honors. She met Mr. Kopp whereas doing volunteer work on behalf of Hungarians who fled to Switzerland in 1956 after the Soviet Union crushed a well-liked rebellion in Hungary.
As inside minister, Mrs. Kopp was typically the federal government’s public voice on immigration — a contentious situation in Switzerland, particularly as folks from international locations like Sri Lanka sought to return there. She was seen by some as taking an anti-immigrant stance, though she stated her concern was about “false” asylum seekers — folks searching for to maneuver for financial causes slightly than due to political persecution.
“This leads to an increase in xenophobia,” she stated in 1987, “which makes it harder for us to fulfill our human obligations.”
After her political profession, Mrs. Kopp did postgraduate research in European legislation and human rights legislation and labored at her husband’s legislation agency. Mr. Kopp died in 2009. Information about Mrs. Kopp’s survivors was not instantly obtainable.
The first girl to function Switzerland’s president, Ruth Dreifuss, was elected in December 1998.
