This is how it goes at Marcel Dettling: from dishwasher to SVP president

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It’s not official yet. But it is already clear: the new SVP chairman is Marcel Dettling (42). The Schwyz National Council is the only one that has made itself available as a candidate to succeed current President Marco Chiesa (49) by the end of the registration deadline. Nothing stands in the way of his election on March 23.

Who is the man who will lead Switzerland’s largest party in the future? Blick highlights five special characteristics of the future SVP boss.

If you ask a foreign tourist how he imagines a typical Swiss person in the country, the description would probably fit Marcel Dettling quite well. He fulfills almost every cliché: the ‘cheerful’ farmer likes to go skiing in his spare time or play a jacket and once yodeled in the Ybrig comrade choir. And the kids look like daddy. They play Schwyzerörgeli and bass in the formation Die lüpfige Chüetriiber. But it doesn’t always have to be just Ländler, says Dettling: “When I was young, I also went to the Street Parade in Zurich.”

Dettling has completed the classic ox tour. At the age of 17 he co-founded the Junge SVP Schwyz, at the age of 27 he became a canton councilor and at the age of 34 he became a national councilor. At the time, he was party leader for the elections for the National Council and he was already planning to take things easier politically after the elections. But things turned out differently: the young Dettling took a seat from the then SP faction leader Andy Tschümperlin (61). A triumph for the Schwyz SVP. After only a short time in federal parliament, Dettling became a member of the national party leadership.

Dettling grew up with two younger and two older siblings in Oberiberg SZ, where he still lives. He was twelve when his mother died of breast cancer. “That shaped me,” he says. He had to lend a hand early on to lighten his father’s burden – and in doing so, learned what it means to care for each other. The family is still very important to him. He met his wife Priska at a wedding and they have three children. “After fourteen years of marriage, the honeymoon is still planned,” Dettling says with a smile. Because you have never managed to go on holiday for more than two or three days.

Dettling earned his first money at the age of twelve as a dishwasher in the piste restaurant at Hoch-Ybrig. “From an early age I worked in tourism, washing dishes and clearing tables,” Dettling remembers. To this day, he works for the Hoch-Ybrig ski lift during the winter high season, guiding drivers to parking spaces. He feels at home here: cars are his hobby, Dettling said in a 1999 survey by the “Berner Zeitung”. And added: “The fact is that women like to get into a sporty, sparkling car.” As a farmer and father, his preferences have shifted somewhat: nowadays it is more important for him and his wife that there is room for the child seats.

Lack of tact? You can’t blame Dettling for that; it’s just a fact. When he was 18 years old, his left hand got stuck in the circular saw while cutting wood. Four fingers were half chopped off. The accident happened far away from the farm; Bleeding profusely, he managed to get help with the tractor. “I knew no one would find me here. If I fall over now, it’s over,” he recalls in the “Tages-Anzeiger”. Dettling succeeded – and he has been going through life with six fingers ever since.

Source:Blick