Top manager goes to the People’s Party
Rolf Dörig is now with the SVP
The Swiss top manager Rolf Dörig is a new member of the SVP. That fits with his value-conservative and economically liberal beliefs, says the Chairman of the Board of Directors of the insurance group Swiss Life.
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SVP President Marco Chiesa (right, here with National Councilor Christian Imark) can be happy.
Sermin Fakipolitical chief
At the start of the election year, the SVP can look forward to prominent growth: top manager Rolf Dörig (65) is a new member of the largest Swiss party. As announced at the SVP’s traditional Bad Horn conference, Dörig has been a member of the local party in Küsnacht ZH since December.
Dörig belongs to the very top of Swiss top management. He is Chairman of the Board of Directors of the insurance group Swiss Life, and from 2009 to 2020 he was also Chairman of the Board of Directors of the world’s largest personnel service provider Adecco.
He was once a “friend of the FDP”
At first glance, Dörig’s entry into the SVP may seem surprising – this would actually be something like the personification of Zurich’s business liberal, not only because of his career in the financial center. No: In 2004, Dörig also founded the “Friends of the FDP”, a support club for liberals, and became its vice president.
But the FDP did not develop in the direction that Dörig thought was right. He wanted to close ranks with the SVP, but under the presidencies of Philipp Müller (70) and Petra Gössi (46) Freisinn developed more into the political center. In 2016, Dörig left the friends. Instead, he supported the SVP Foundation “for civil politics”.
Close to the SVP for a long time
“My socially value-conservative and economically liberal convictions in combination with my ties to my homeland fit well with the SVP,” explains Dörig when he joined the party. In fact, the Zurich native has repeatedly attracted attention with his pointed bourgeois attitudes, which go well with the SVP.
So Dörig was one of the few business leaders who spoke out in favor of the mass immigration and enforcement initiative of the SVP. And against closer ties to the EU. “Today I’m very close to the SVP,” Dörig told the NZZ a year and a half ago. So now he’s right in the middle.
You can find the big interview with Rolf Dörig about his political plans on Sunday in the SonntagsBlick and on blick.ch.