Pascal couchepin

Pascal Couchepin (born 5 April 1942) is a Swiss politician who served as a Member of the Swiss Federal Council from 1998 to 2009.
Pascal Couchepin is a Swiss politician who served as a Member of the Swiss Federal Council from 1998 to 2009.
Pascal Couchepin (born 5 April 1942) is a Swiss politician.

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Mr. President, Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen,

It is a truly inspiring to see so many people from around the world gather in one place for this important global event.

I would like to thank Mr. Utsumi of the ITU for all his efforts in working with the Swiss Government and others in bringing this all together.

If there is a single word, one overriding idea, that sums up why we are here, it is connections.

Connections and partnerships among Governments, civil society and the private sector.

Connections among issues, such as development, democracy and peace.

Connecting people to the Internet, and to the other information and communication technologies that have such enormous potential to improve lives and advance freedoms.

And perhaps most of all, connecting people to each other, in networks of solidarity and mutual understanding that transcend national and cultural boundaries.

This Summit is an opportunity to highlight all that I.T. can do for education, health, agriculture, and governance. But it must also be more than that: it must help us to break down the barriers t

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Unternavigation

Pascal Couchepin was born in Martigny on 5th April 1942. He grew up in a traditionally liberal family, despite his home canton of Valais being a strong hold of the Catholic CVP. His family environment was characterised by a distinct interest in politics. After taking his high school leaving examination at St. Maurice College and subsequently completing his law degree at the University of Lausanne in 1966, he gained a notary diploma and passed the bar examination in 1968. Like his father and grandfather, he became actively committed to the interests of business, since he believed progress was only assured through the development of industry and tourism. In interviews, he kept expressing a keen interest for the common good.

In 1968, Couchepin was elected to the executive authority of Martigny and served as its Mayor from 1984 to 1998. He became a national councillor in 1979 and the floor leader of the FDP delegation at the Federal Assembly in 1996. Before he was elected to the Federal Council, he was a member of various boards, presided the Swiss Multiple Sclerosis

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Public lecture of Pascal Couchepin: Democracy

On October 30, 2003 the President of Switzerland Mr. Pascal Coucheping delivered a lecture on the challenges to democracy. The event, co-organized by CSD, the Atlantic Club in Bulgaria and the Bulgarian Diplomatic Society, brought together more than 250 people in the National Art Gallery in Sofia.

In his remarks Mr. Couchepin posed a question as to whether it is possible for the West-European type of liberal democracy to spread all over the world. Historically, democracy had been constantly opposed throughout the centuries but it is well known that it can survive if a certain level of education, culture and social and economic development exist, Mr. Couchepin pointed out.

In the last several years the liberal model of democracy was brought to a new life together with a growing aspiration of the institutions themselves to act independently from political and material interests of the governing political parties. This requires more efforts to fight corruption and to establish a judiciary which is independent from the p