An irrepressible curiosity

It is not every day that you can meet a Federal Councilor in the calm of his home ...

Montagnola today is my home, but I was born in Sessa and… raised among women. My dad was often absent for work, he was an insurer and in those days the policies were signed in the evening, when the husband returned, so I stayed at home with my mother and three sisters. I had to learn immediately to socialize, to look for concrete solutions, such as the use of the only bathroom we had ... you can't imagine how many discussions we had about that bathroom (smiles), but all in all those quarrels anticipated of the negotiation methods useful in adulthood.

I imagine that Sessa was a village like today, surrounded by greenery, without forgetting that his father, during the day, continued to be a farmer. What kind of child were you?

From what I remember and my mom's scolding, when I came home with my pants broken (we laugh), I was a pretty lively kid. I went to the woods a lot, I played with my schoolmates, I was a "strusone", I created my games, I had fun with little. I started moving from Sessa when I started the gymnasium, in Agno and a little later, at the age of 12, I went to Lugano for athletics training. I also practiced the throwing of the ball in Cornaredo, but for a while because at 13 I lost a finger and the ball must be held with the five fingers ... this had demotivated me.

Can I ask what happened to her?

Nothing extraordinary: when I jumped a railing, my finger remained inside. No one had made a great story about it, it was a much simpler world, we didn't complain too much because you risked taking them.

It seems centuries have passed and we are talking about forty years ago ... there was much more severity in raising children ...

My dad was stiff, the classic Ticino dad who doesn't compliment his children, especially his son, because he doesn't want him to lose motivation. It was there when it was needed. He wasn't the type to slap you on the back, but over the years his satisfaction has come to me through other people. He was a good father.

I guess, also because you were the first academic in the family. Why did you choose to study medicine?

For curiosity. When I lost my finger, I wondered: why does the blood come out like this, why didn't I feel bad when I broke it? I already had a strong interest in the human body. The same thing happened to me when I witnessed an epileptic seizure of a friend of mine ... my mom told me that for days I harassed her with questions.

Curious, lively, I guess he also did well at school ...

I was doing well in school, but I was not a nerd, I was a kid like the others, I liked the scooter ... I remember that I worked a whole summer, we were a modest family, to be able to buy it (stops for a moment) indeed: I worked for six weeks and then I went to my grandmother's "cry" because the money wasn't enough (we laugh). And then I was hitchhiking ...

Hitch-hiking?

For us it was normal in the '70s, I went out in front of the house and someone always passed… after all it was like asking for a lift.

And how did you find it in Zurich? Also because the schweizerdeutsch certainly did not facilitate the studies ...

It was an intense time, because I had to study a lot there, but I also have funny memories, like when I found myself in the middle of the street without a home.

Excuse me but what happened?

I had taken an apartment outside the city with three other boys, in a house of a very strict lady, who had set very strict conditions: we could not play instruments (in those days I played the trumpet), organize dinners, bring girls ... and in the end I was thrown away. outside, without too many words, because one evening I was sitting in the house chatting with a girl (we laugh).

But why did he immediately return to Ticino after university?

At that time, it was 1988, there were a lot of doctors, so as soon as you got a job you took it. If I had found him in Bienne… I would have gone to Bienne, while I found him at the Italian Hospital in the surgery department.

Let's at least get a taste of how he approached politics ...

No one in my family really did politics. My mother was born and raised in Bergamo and mainly took care of the house, while my father, who was born in Longhirolo, three kilometers from Sessa, but in the municipality of Luino, knew the politics of the country. In fact, my grandmother had taken a restaurant in Sessa in 1928 and at that time, in every country, there was the band of liberals and that of “uregiatt” (PPD). Since he had two sons he had placed one on one side and one on the other, to keep more customers good, and my dad had touched the group of liberals and he educated us accordingly.

Am I wrong or was he never active in politics before going to the national council?

Exactly, but I've always loved public commitment, I'm a bit of a collective animal. As a student I was in the Ticino Student Association in Zurich and when I returned to Lugano, at the age of 27, I assumed the presidency of the Ticino Society of Assistant Physicians and Clinical Head. So, to answer your question, no active politics, but a lot of professional politics (satisfied).

And among all these commitments where did you meet your wife?

I met her in Zurich, she was studying medicine and she was two years younger than me; but the flame lit up years later, when he worked at the Italian Hospital and I was at the Civico, I was 29 years old. It was not easy (smiles), I had to charm her by convincing her to take on the role of assistant physician association secretary and clinical head. I cheated her a little, as she says (laughs).

Haven't you had any children?

No, unfortunately we have not had any and perhaps it is also for this reason that we have both dedicated ourselves a lot to professional careers.

An intense and demanding professional career, do you feel lucky or have nothing been given to you?

For me it was about knowing how to seize opportunities. I originally wanted to become an otolaryngologist, but those were the years of the AIDS epidemic. At the Civic Hospital they were looking for a doctor to deal with this issue. Nobody wanted to do it because there was a lot of fear, it was known that it was a contagious and deadly disease, little was known about how it was contagious. When Professor Moccetti, then head physician, asked if anyone was interested in dealing with the disease, no one came forward; therefore I decided to face the challenge. In July 89 we opened an outpatient service for these patients. For me it was an important experience, many patients were peers I knew, I felt emotionally connected to them more than to the elderly hospitalized.

He later became a cantonal doctor, aren't you sorry to lose this privileged bond with the patient?

Not really, because I understood that the main suffering of AIDS patients came from the social fabric: the patients were perceived as a kind of monsters. This had made me understand many things on the anthropological level, on the social significance of a disease. So it seemed normal to me to turn to the branch of medicine called "public health". As it happened, the cantonal doctor, Giordano Kaufmann, was under such pressure from the AIDS epidemic that he asked me to become an assistant cantonal doctor. But I was convinced by the then councilor of state Rossano Bervini, sensitive to the issue. The real dilemma, however, came later ... I was in Lausanne in 1996 to finish my specialization and with Paola we were thinking of moving to Atlanta for a professional experience at the United States Investigative Epidemiology Service, when the competition for cantonal doctor opened. I remember that every night I tormented Paola with my doubts. In the end, I decided to run for the post of cantonal doctor: a train that would never pass for decades. And I'm happy about it: I found myself in a fantastic profession for eleven years. I probably wouldn't be in the Federal Council without that experience.

Years during which relations with Palazzo delle Ursoline become more and more intense and then comes 2003, the federal elections ... and she unexpectedly ends up in Bern ...

In those years I was close to the PLR, I perceived that the liberal values ​​were mine: responsibility, freedom, rationality, absence of dogmas… President Giovanni Merlini asked me to join the list for the National Council. The reason was funny: all the other parties had a doctor on the list, while the PLR ​​was missing! He convinced me by reassuring me: "It was about participating, you will not be elected!". So in the fall of 2003 I made a nice campaign, very funny, aware that I was a novice and that the goal was to win back the third seat in the national team with Laura Sadis. And the goal was achieved! Laura Sadis was elected and I was the first to take over. Then it happened that Sadis became a State Councilor in 2007 and that I ended up in Bern (laughs).

A sensational entry, a radical change in life, if I remember correctly in that period it also lost a lot of weight ...

Ten kilos, then five more; I had wanted to lose weight for years and when I found myself in Bern… without my wife's dinners…. Furthermore, at that time I had started running again.

National councilor, he immediately becomes vice-president of the Central Committee of the Federation of Swiss doctors and begins to make friends in the most powerful lobbies, a critical choice ...

I was only criticized for health insurance companies, but never for having been vice-president of Swiss doctors, a much more powerful lobby than those of health insurance companies ... or president, for the last 5 years, of the national umbrella association of elderly homes (CURAVIVA), the largest I have chaired, with a budget of 25 million.

Knowing that the health insurance companies were frowned upon, he couldn't, how shall I say, leave?

I knew it would damage my political reputation, but it's part of my personality, I also like to provoke. Above all to try to make rationality dominate over prejudice.

Did the same thing happen when he joined the pro Tell Weapons Defense Organization and then withdrew?

Yes, this is me. I like to move areas in which the good from the bad is divided in a maniacal way, with gigantic prejudices.

And how did he react when he realized he was in the running, that he had the right cards to become the 117th Swiss Federal Councilor?

I soon realized that the road was going to be all uphill and that I would have to swallow many toads. But I was aware of where I had already arrived, having experienced so many things and having overcome them. It is a progression, as happens in all of us, few geniuses are born. In most cases we are normal evolving people. Having lived the associative life intensely for decades has certainly taught me a lot. At that moment I felt ready.

Were you never afraid? Afraid of not making it, afraid of not being the right person? Fear of failing ...

Fear is always there and it is good, because it forces you to reflect. But it must not paralyze. My fear didn't take away my sleep, but it was a constant tension. Moments of great solitude made me grow. I was aware that things could also go wrong: I was ready for anything.

A self-discipline that probably reflects the character of his father ...

(Laughs). He would have been happy, that's how he educated me. You know ... the episode of the finger not only caused me great curiosity for the human body, it also marked me temperamentally. I remember that when they decided to amputate it my dad took me to the old Civic and told me: "I'll leave you here and then I'll come back for you in the afternoon". That wait was the longest of my life: I was alone, in a semi-dark room, waiting for my sewn finger to be amputated. I don't want to criticize my father, but to make her understand how such experiences make you mature. Let's take a short break, it's never easy to remember.

How did you experience Burkhalter's resignation, having become the summer media interest…

When Burkhalter's surprise resignation came, we were on a lunch break. As president of the Parliamentary Group, I called the 45 FDP ​​parliamentarians from the break to inform them and share the communication strategy. The news was given at 15.00 pm and at 16.15 pm my name was already circulating. At that moment I thought: “They kill me even before they start”. The media are difficult to manage, their logic has lost a lot of rationality. It is the logic of the show, which wants scandals to sell. Being given as a favorite from the early hours has made me a favorite target: I spent the summer dodging the darts of target practice. Whatever I did or said was a priori turned into scandal. It was certainly the most difficult exam!

So when it was all over, when he was elected in the second round, he felt a great relief ...

Being quickly elected gave me great joy, but once again I couldn't stop and savor it because there were too many things to think about, the media to manage, it was once again a start.

Your wife has always supported her, in her medical career, in that of politics, but I imagine that for her too, her election was a time of great changes ...

The first few days after Burkhalter's resignation she was worried, she feared that our lives would be turned upside down, and she wondered if it really was needed. Then I explained to her that it was another train passing by and that it would never pass. She had to get used to the idea, being more shy and reserved, of absorbing poisons. It is not easy for a person who loves you to accept so much jealousy and cruelty. But after a few days he said to me: “Count on me”.

At this moment you cannot talk about your political activity, but tell me at least one thing: what do you think of the Department assigned to you?

I'm happy. Everyone wanted me to go to the Berset Department of the Interior, where I had the best skills. Fortunately, this was not the case, because whatever I said or did in health care, I would have been accused of playing the game of the "bad lobbyists" of the health insurance companies or the "good lobbyists" of the doctors. In foreign affairs, on the other hand, I can act without this flaw. There is of course the hot potato of relations with the European Union, but I am leaving unconditionally. Foreign policy, in a direct democracy, is internal policy! There are issues that do not pass on the internal level, others that do not pass on the international level: we must therefore find the squaring of the circle. And then (joking tone) I hope to count on the understanding reserved for newbies!

Her constituents care a lot about her, having her in Bern is like having a piece of Italian Switzerland even if, theoretically, it shouldn't change anything ...

Instead I believe that something will change; my presence will guarantee a better consideration of the Italian language and culture, I am convinced! A few nights ago I was having dinner with Alain Berset and he said to me: “There is one thing I learned with your election: you have lunar expectations on your shoulders from Italian-speaking Switzerland. When I was elected, the Canton of Friborg didn't expect anything special from me; the Fribourgeois were certainly proud, but they did not have wishes very different from those of the other Swiss. Instead your election has a greater cultural dimension ”. Little by little in Bern we realize that some Swiss have not had, for many years, that symbolic and psychological link necessary with their own government, to feel part of a common project. A vacuum that lasted 18 years, which I have today the duty and the privilege to fill. Many years to recover.
Too many years I add.