He held the office of Vice-Chancellor of Switzerland between 1981 and 2005, and during this time became the first official spokesman for the Swiss Federal Council when that role was created on 1 September 2000.

[2][3] Born in Zürich in 1941 but originating from the Italian-speaking canton Ticino, he first attended school in Lugano, before studying political science at the universities of Bern and Fribourg.

He began working as a journalist for the national press agency of Switzerland, before joining the Swiss Italian Television RSI in 1966.

Fluent in German, French, Italian and English, his resignation sparked a minor row over language representation within the Swiss Federal government, when his successor, Oswald Sigg, was named over several candidates from Swiss-French and Swiss-Italian regions.

This was compounded by the fact that his office (the second Vice-chancellor, in charge of the Information & Communication sector) had initially been created in 1895 on an ad hoc basis, to add a senior representative of the French and Italian speaking regions when both the Chancellor and the other Vice-chancellors came from German-speaking cantons.