Fulvio Pelli

Fulvio Pelli (born 26 January 1951) is a Swiss politician. He was the last president of the Free Democratic Party prior to its merger with the Liberal Party of Switzerland. After the merger of the two parties, he served as the first president of FDP and the Liberals from 2009 to 2012. Pelli was a member of the Swiss National Council from 1995 to 2014. He served in the communal legislature of Lugano from 1980 to 1990 and in the Grand Council of Ticino from 1983 to 1995.

Biography Pelli was born in Aranno, in the Lugano District of Ticino. His father, Ferruccio, was the mayor of Lugano for 16 years. He studied law in Zurich and worked as a lawyer in Lugano.

In 1980, he gained a seat on the municipal council in Lugano and was elected to the Grand Council of Ticino in 1983. He was active in party politics, taking over the cantonal presidency of the Free Democrats in 1988. In 1992, he also took on a vice presidency in the national party. Pelli ran against George Theiler and took 228 of 378 votes to win the presidency. After taking over, Pelli continued to work toward the close cooperation of the Liberal Party in elections that had started under Langenberger. In 2005, both parties agreed to form a union of liberal parties in the various federal and cantonal assemblies. After poor results in the 2007 elections, Liberal Party president Claude Ruey formally proposed a merger of the two parties. The merger took place on 1 January 2009. Pelli was named the party president, while Isabelle Moret, Ruedi Noser, Vincenzo Pedrazzini, and Pierre Weiss, the former LP president, joined as vice presidents. As of 2020, he was the chairman of the board of Banque Profil de Gestion, a Geneva-based private bank.