Visiting SVP President Marco Chiesa and his father: “I prefer to watch Karin Keller-Sutter”

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“What do you think? Nice or?” Marco Chiesa (48) places a stack of beer coasters with his portrait on the stone table for his father. Election advertising. “It would be more fun if my face was on it,” says Antonio Chiesa (73) dryly. His son laughs loudly.

There is great excitement in the garden of the Grotto Pierino in Lugano, where the SVP president and his father meet for lunch. Almost as many people want a selfie with the politician’s father as with him himself, because Antonio Chiesa has something of a legendary status in the region: the former footballer won the cup with FC Lugano in 1968. “Until I entered national politics, I was always first and foremost ‘Antonio Chiesa’s son’,” says Marco. “You still are,” says the senior, between a bite of Brasato and a sip of red wine.

Mother’s interest in politics

Even though he would never admit it, Antonio Chiesa is proud of his son with every fiber of his being. Although he claims he never turns on the television when Marco is debating on screen – “I prefer watching Karin Keller-Sutter, her face is prettier” – he could probably quote his last three TV appearances from memory. Even though ten minutes don’t pass with the two doing nothing, you can still tell that their relationship is close. This despite – or perhaps because – Marco Chiesa never lived with his father. His parents separated early. “I don’t remember ever seeing them as a couple,” he says. Yet the father is present in his youth and, for example, he does not miss a single football match of his son. “I really appreciated that,” he says. When he goes to Friborg to study, Marco hangs up his football boots. “Since then I haven’t done anything that my father thinks he is good at. Maps, for example,” Chiesa jokes with a sideways glance at Antonio, who has served twice on the city council. He continues eating without moving and then shrugs his shoulders and says: “In any case, I was directly elected both times.”

The foundation for Marco’s political interest was laid by his mother, who was a municipal secretary and ‘close to the CVP’: ‘She always took me to political events. With my father I lived more of the ticinesità: discussions in the cave, playing boccia on the weekends, exactly what constitutes the ‘Spirito ticinese’, the soul of Ticino. And ultimately, it is probably the driving force behind Marco Chiesa’s political career. So he doesn’t say, “I’m happy to have been elected to the National Council,” but rather, “I’m happy to have been elected to the National Council as a Ticino resident.” The seat in the Council of States is the greatest honor for him: “I am proud to represent my canton in Bern.” This explains his decision not to run for the National Council: Chiesa wants to go to Bern as a Ticinese. Or not.

The story of the husky

Antonio Chiesa finds it incomprehensible that his son commutes to the capital “what feels like 100 times a week” (the SVP president has no residence in Bern). “If he did it for a woman, I would understand. But for politics?” Well, on the one hand he does it so that he is not constantly separated from his wife Monja, 45, and their children Mathias (15) and Micol (13). And on the other hand, out of passion for politics. He certainly shares the desire to live out his passion with his father. “He used to invest a lot in football, now he invests a lot in hunting and mushroom picking. And he loves the mountains, we have that in common,” says Marco Chiesa. Otherwise they are quite different.

What was Marco like as a child? “Normally,” says father Antonio in his own pragmatic way, “he rode a motorcycle and then a car. Marco was a normal teenager who liked to go out with friends.” And as a teenager, he bought a husky without asking and left it with his father because the pet discussion with his mother did not lead to the desired result. “He solemnly promised that he would dog. And then went to Fribourg to study economics,” says Antonio Chiesa with a mock sigh.

Worry about daddy

After the caffè – the gentlemen skip the limoncello today – we make a short detour to the football stadium, which both churches associate with so many memories. The Cornaredo is currently undergoing extensive renovation. It goes without saying that two of the most famous Luganese players are still allowed to kick a few balls on the lawn. “Football has taught me many things that I can also use in politics,” says Marco Chiesa. «For example, teamwork. No matter how good you are, you will always fail alone.” And delegation: “As party chairman from Ticino, I cannot be present everywhere. There are many people in our party who can represent our positions very well. I leave the playing field in safe hands .”

But Marco Chiesa learned one thing a few years ago outside the football field and the political circus: that there are situations in which you suddenly have to set your priorities very differently. When Antonio Chiesa is in hospital with heart problems and his life hangs in the balance, Marco realizes: “Sometimes you have to focus on what is really important to you personally.”

The father-son duo march out of the stadium. “Ciao, Antonio!” Marco shouts as he walks towards his car. He raises his hand as he walks, then turns and grins widely. Marco Chiesa laughs. “You just have to love him, right?”

Source:Blick