“Viola Amherd never gave up and always held her line,” greets Dominique de Buman – rts.ch

National advisor for the Christian Democratic Party (PDC) from 2003 to 2019, Dominique de Buman worked alongside Viola Amherd for a long time under the federal dome even before Haut-Valaisanne reached the top of the State. The day after the announcement of the resignation of the head of the Federal Department of Defense, Civil Protection and Sports, the former President of the National Council (2017-2018) paid her a “vibrant tribute” and considered that the Federal Councilor from the Center has always remained faithful to her line of conduct.

Viola Amherd doesn’t like people minding her own business, just as she doesn’t mind other people’s business

“Viola Amherd is a loner. She’s almost a pure mountain girl, she doesn’t like to indulge, she doesn’t like trickery. She’s always been the same and what struck me was is that her behavior has never changed, whether when she was national advisor, group president or federal advisor. She has an authenticity that is impressive. I have worked with many federal advisors and she has always been. one of the most accessible”, testifies Dominique de Buman.

>> Read also: Viola Amherd creates a surprise by announcing her resignation, The Center already mobilized for succession

“A true centrist”

According to Le Fribourgeois, Viola Amherd also stood out for her discretion. “She has her own world. She doesn’t like people minding her own business, in the same way that she doesn’t mind other people’s business. She doesn’t like controversy and battles “She’s a true centrist who has personal convictions, she likes results, but she also knows that you have to work with others to get there.”

When she has a project, she doesn’t abandon it

On the political level, Dominique de Buman describes Brigoise as “persistent”, “determined” and “a fine legal blade”, also standing out as a “tactician”, like “a little mouse who comes, who observes, who does not makes no noise, but knows exactly where it is going and it achieves its goal”, but without embellishment. “There may be no design, not much marketing or communication, but Viola is Viola.”

And to continue: “When she has a project, she does not abandon it. We could see at the DDPS that there were very difficult files, such as cybersecurity, Ruag, certain appointments, the creation of the Secretariat of State security, quotas for women in sporting bodies We know that there can be resistance in a department, but she never gave up, she had a line from which she never departed. “

For Dominique de Buman, Viola Amherd was not consumed by the ambition of power. He remembers a discussion with the Valaisanne a few months before the 2019 federal elections: “She told me, without betraying her confidence, that she did not know at the time if she was going to run for the National Council”.

Resistant to controversy

Its mountain side allowed it to withstand the winds and political storms, believes the former president of the Swiss Tourism Federation. “She is camped, she does not move. We can attack her in a very unpleasant and boorish way as the UDC has just done, she practically did not react.”

>> Also read: The UDC demands the resignation of Viola Amherd, believing that she is mismanaging the army

Concerning the attacks by the first party in Switzerland on January 11, which demanded the resignation of the head of the DDPS by citing her poor management of the army, they would have had, according to Dominique de Buman, no impact on the decision by Viola Amherd.

When you attack people in such a violent way, it is an attack on trust and political stability

“The rumors about his departure were circulating well before the SVP attack. Furthermore, you don’t make a decision like this in a few minutes. There was also the resignation at the head of our party of Gerhard Pfister… we can imagine that there was a certain consultation in the decisions. I do not believe that the UDC played a role, even if those ignorant of the political scene are perhaps impressed by this trick. , analyzes the former advisor national.

The Fribourgeois judge considers these attacks “contrary” to what the UDC defends: institutions and political stability. “When you attack people in such a violent way, it’s an attack on trust, on the stability of the political climate. It’s an offense against their own image.”

Comments collected by Pietro Bugnon

Web article: Jérémie Favre