A 42-year-old lawyer from the Centre Party joined the Appenzell Innerrhoden cantonal government in April. So far, so unremarkable. But Angela Koller is different. She is the first woman to be elected as Appenzell Innerrhoden’s cantonal president at the Landsgemeinde, the traditional open-air assembly at which eligible citizens gather to vote. Appenzell Innerrhoden became the last Swiss canton to give women the vote – after the Federal Supreme Court forced it to do so in 1990.
Some 35 years later, Koller – who has sat in the cantonal parliament for a number of years – says that she has heard from a lot of women who, in her words, “want better representation”. This motivated her to stand for election. She beat three other candidates to the post, with the customary show of hands sealing a historic result. Koller had previously not only chaired the parliamentary committee responsible for overhauling the cantonal constitution but had also headed the Appenzell employees’ association, AVA. Bodies like the AVA often carry more weight than political parties in Innerrhoden. Koller was exposed to politics from an early age, often listening in to the conversations at her parents’ pub. She has enjoyed reading ever since she was at school, and her book recommendations on Instagram reflect this. Koller will first take on the education portfolio. She and Roland Dähler are the dual heads of the cantonal government. Dähler currently has governing powers, which will pass to Koller at the end of a two-year alternating cycle that has just begun. Innerrhoden’s women may not have been able to vote before 1990, but their embroidery skills used to be one of the canton’s key sources of income. They now have a political milestone to celebrate.
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