Sisters in the town hall – The Dittli sisters: From the farm to the government building – News

With Laura and Valérie Dittli, there is a pair of sisters in two government councils for the first time. What connects them, what divides them.

Two sisters go into politics and, in quick succession, make it into a cantonal government: a rather unlikely scenario, one might think. But this is exactly what happened on Sunday. In Zug, 31-year-old Laura Dittli was elected to the government council – six months after her 29-year-old sister Valérie Dittli was elected to the government of the canton of Vaud.

Politicization is already taking place at the kitchen table

Both of their political careers began on the Vorderschneit farm in Oberägeri in Zug. The father is an organic farmer, the mother a social worker, politics is often a topic at the kitchen table. “Many political decisions have a direct impact on the farmers, such as the milk price,” says Laura Dittli.

Even as a child, she felt it was unfair how much her parents worked and how little she saw out of it. “That’s why I wanted to influence things early on to change things.”

Do your own thing to make things change – this is what Valérie Dittli has also taken up. She explains this with her childhood on the farm, as she said in Radio SRF’s “Tagessprach” at the end of September: “I come from an environment in which great importance was attached to personal responsibility.”

The older sister starts, the younger overtakes

Laura Dittli is the first to get involved politically. In 2014 she had the 23-year-old law student stand for the then CVP and was elected to the Zug cantonal parliament. She was re-elected in 2018, and in 2019 she took over the presidency of what is now the Mitte party. In addition, she works as a lawyer, is involved in the brass band association, and presides over the Harmoniemusik Oberägeri. When she was elected to the government, at the age of 31 she was already an experienced and well-connected canton politician.

In the case of the younger sister Valérie, this path is initially less clear. But when she moves to Lausanne to study law and finds that there is no longer a significant CVP there, things suddenly happen quickly. She reactivates the party and becomes party president in 2020. Laura Dittli says she may have infected her younger sister with politics.

I may have infected my younger sister with politics.

Valérie Dittli was soon recognized as an assertive personality. In April of this year, she will be standing in the government elections at the age of 29 – and will be elected with the support of the FDP and SVP, without ever having held a political office.

Legend:

Managed to be elected to the Vaud government without having previously held a political office: Valérie Dittli when she was sworn in as Councilor of State in July 2022.

Keystone/Valentin Flauraud

Both sisters describe themselves as “ambitious” and “combative”; half measures are not her thing. But despite all the similarities, there are also differences – especially when it comes to her government work.

“No race to the Federal Council”

Valérie Dittli, director of finance and agriculture in Vaud, has no power in parliament: her party, the center, does not have a single seat in parliament, it is dependent on its allies from the FDP and SVP.

Laura Dittli in the canton of Zug, on the other hand, sits in the government as a representative of a state-supporting party: the center party has three seats in the seven-member government council, and in parliament it is the largest group with 19 seats.

Both sisters want to help each other with advice, and they don’t think of competition, says Laura Dittli. And smiles: “There is no race between us, who will be the first Federal Councilor.”