Manuele Bertoli is State councillor of the Canton of Ticino in southern Switzerland. He’s the only blind member of a cantonal government in the country. We met him in his office in Bellinzona just before his retirement from political life.
How did he manage to have such a successful political career despite being blind? What is his vision of Swiss democracy and its instruments of direct democracy?
“Direct democracy in Switzerland is not something that those in power use to confirm their own ideas,” he explains, “But something that often starts from the bottom, with citizens’ initiatives.”
Bertoli, from the left-wing Social Democratic Party, became head of the government of the Italian-speaking canton of Ticino in 2014. He has been a member of the Ticino government (composed of five
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