| Carlo Sommaruga | |
| Office: | Member of the Council of States of Switzerland |
| Termstart: | 2019 |
| Office1: | Member of the National Council |
| Termstart1: | 2003 |
| Termend1: | 2019 |
| Birth Date: | 8 July 1959 |
| Birth Place: | Zürich, Switzerland |
| Party: | Social Democratic Party of Switzerland |
Carlo Sommaruga (born 8 July 1959) is a Swiss lawyer and politician of the Social Democratic Party of Switzerland (SP). He has been a National Councilor for over a decade and since 2019 he is a member of the Council of States.
He was born into a family with a political background in Zürich. His father is Cornelio Sommaruga, a former diplomat and president of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). He grew up in Geneva, where he studied law at the University of Geneva.[1] He obtained his lawyers license in 1989.[2] Subsequently, Sommaruga attended the Graduate Institute of Development Studies in 1984-1985.[3]
Between 1991 and 2001 he was a member of the municipal council of Thônex and a member of the Grand Council of Geneva from 2001 to 2003.[4] He became a member of the National Council in 2003 and was re-elected until 2019. In November 2019 he was elected into the Council of States representing the SP for the Canton of Geneva.[5]
In 2007 he suggested that members of the Swiss diaspora were to be represented in Parliament, which in 2009 was voted down by the Council of States.[6] Since 2017 Sommaruga was a main force behind a law which would have prohibited nuclear weapons in Switzerland, both signed by the National council and the Counci of States,[7] but on request of the Federal Councilor Ignazio Cassis, the Federal Council refused to sign it.[8]
As a member of the National Council, he was the co-president of the Parliamentarian Group for the relations to the Kurdish people.[9] He was also critical to the Israeli incursion into the Gaza strip in 2008–2009 and in 2017, he asked in the National Council if a prosecution would be launched against the Israeli politician Tzipi Livni, who visited Switzerland at the time.[10] Besides he is a supporter of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement with other politicians of the SP.[11]
He is a lawyer for the tenants' association of Switzerland in Geneva and in November 2016, he was elected their president.[12] [13] Since 2018, he is also the president of the board of directors of the Swiss branch of the European NGO for social justice Solidar.[14]