Farmer’s President Markus Ritter (56): This is how the most powerful farmer in Switzerland is connected

Ritter was supported from many sides in his political career: in his community of Altstätten, in the canton of St. Gallen and at the federal level. One of his companions is centrist party chairman Gerhard Pfister, as well as centrist parliamentary group leader Philipp Bregy. The lawyer regularly advocates for the interests of farmers, most recently for faster approval of new pesticides. St. Gallen State Councilor Benedikt Würth and Center National Councilor Nicolò Paganini are also among Ritter’s most important confidants.

But the SBV chairman is also expanding his network outside his party. Together with St. Gallen councilor Esther Friedli (SVP), he campaigned for more agricultural representatives on both councils. It appears that the cooperation between both parties has paid off. Ritter’s party colleague Pius Kaufmann from the canton of Lucerne is now in the National Council, as are nine representatives from the agricultural camp with SVP party membership. A long list of farmers was re-elected, including Ritter’s party colleague Priska Wismer-Felder, farmer and board member of the Lucerne Farmers’ Association, Leo Müller, board member of the Fenaco cooperative, Christine Bulliard-Marbach, chairman of “Pays romand – Pays gourmand”, as well as the winemaker Andreas Meier.

Markus Ritter has been chairman of the Farmers’ Association (SBV) for eleven years and has greatly expanded its influence during that time with great ambition and smart moves. Its vice-president, Anne Challandes, as chairman of the Swiss Association of Farmers and Rural Women, represents, among other things, the interests of women in the SBV. In addition to his old colleague and director Martin Rufer, Urs Schneider, deputy director, is one of his most important contacts. Ritter can also always count on the support of Peter Nüesch, canton councilor of the FDP and chairman of the St. Gallen farmers’ association.

The highest farmer in the country knows how to win over colleagues from other camps for the interests of Swiss farmers. An example of this is the ‘Money and Manure Alliance’ with Economiesuisse, an employers’ and trade organization. After these strategic partners had already supported each other in two popular initiatives, they announced the joint election platform “Perspective Switzerland” in October last year. The campaign aimed to mobilize pro-business and pro-agriculture voters. Christoph Mäder, chairman of the economic umbrella organization Economiesuisse, Valentin Vogt, former chairman of the employers’ association, and his successor Severin Moser are among Ritter’s colleagues, as well as Fabio Regazzi, chairman of the trade association and national councilor since 2011. Alliances like these make Ritter one of the most powerful parliamentarians in Bern.

It’s a love story straight out of a picture book: Ritter’s future wife Heidi grew up on the Ritter family’s neighboring farm. He noticed her as a boy: “She had beautiful blond hair and was tall,” he remembers. They both love animals and nature, something that still binds the couple, who have been married for over 29 years, together to this day. At the beginning of this year, the Ritters transferred the farm in Altstätten SG to their two sons Adrian and Daniel Ritter. “This fills us with joy. “It’s a great thing for a farmer if his work continues,” Ritter emphasizes. However, he and his wife continue to help on the farm.

In recent years, the Swiss farmers’ association and its chairman, Markus Ritter, have found themselves in the firing line of the environmental associations Greenpeace, WWF, Pro Natura and BirdLife. In 2020 they launched the ‘Stop the agricultural lobby’ campaign. Ritter and the SBV were accused of blocking ecological progress in parliament. The campaign was co-financed by the Mava Foundation, founded by heirs of the founding Roche family. The campaign was led by WWF’s Jonas Schmid. One of the sharpest critics of the farmers’ association is Kilian Baumann, chairman of the small farmers’ association and Green National Councilor, who recently criticized the SBV’s alliance with Economiesuisse and other associations.

After training as a farmer and subsequently training as a business manager, Ritter completed his studies as an industrial engineer at the St. Gallen University of Applied Sciences. The farmer became involved in the world of associations at an early age. In the early 1990s he was elected to the board of the St. Gallen Brown Cattle Breeding Association, became chairman of the St. Gallen Farmers’ Association in 2005 and chairman of the Swiss Farmers’ Association seven years later. In this role he is building a solid network. One of his companions will be current SBV director and canton councilor of Solothurn FDP Martin Rufer, with whom Ritter has been on the association’s board since 2006. Ritter was also active in politics as a young man: at the age of 26 he became a municipal councilor in his home community of Altstätten and has been a member of the National Council since 2011.

His biggest successes include the new constitutional article 104a on food security and the rejection of popular initiatives in the areas of drinking water, pesticides and factory farming. In this he succeeded in mobilizing an impressively large part of the rural population. Many observers also attribute the election of the Jura farmer’s daughter Elisabeth Baume-Schneider (SP) a year ago to Ritter’s skillful maneuvers.