A week ago, the Federal Supreme Court proposed to the Federal Assembly to elect Donzallaz as Supreme Court president. Parliament has to decide on this in the winter session.
In a written statement obtained by the Keystone-SDA news agency, Donzallaz said he had reached a comprehensive agreement with SVP Switzerland and the SVP faction in federal councils. In it, he undertakes to leave the party if the plenary of ordinary justices of the Federal Supreme Court assures him of confidence and proposes him (…) for the office of president. “The plenum was informed in advance that I would leave the party,” writes the Walliser judge.
«Independence of the judiciary wins»
The main purpose of this agreement “was to ensure the possibility of peaceful and constructive cooperation with SVP Switzerland in the context of my potential position as President of the Federal Supreme Court,” Donzallaz noted.
The secretary of the Wallis department, Jérôme Desmeules, confirmed on Monday that Donzallaz is leaving the cantonal department. As far as he knows, the federal judge is now officially independent. He lamented “the loss of Mr. Donzallaz, which is deeply human”, but believed that “the independence of the judiciary will benefit”.
Unpleasant judgments made
Donzallaz, who was elected a federal judge in 2008, was controversial in the SVP for making several statements that contradicted the party line. For example, in 2019 he spoke out in favor of releasing thousands of UBS customer data to France. In 2020, the party had proposed not to re-elected him as SVPler.
The other parties condemned this attitude and supported Wallis’ re-election. Donzallaz ended up getting 177 votes out of 239 valid ballots, the worst result of any judge. (SDA)