Corina Casanova Corina Casanova Corina Casanova (born 4 January 1956) was the Federal Chancellor of Switzerland between 2008 and 2015. Born in Ilanz, Graubünden, Casanova worked as a lawyer in the practice of the former President of the Swiss Federal Supreme Court, Giusep Nay, as well as a Red Cross delegate in South Africa, Angola, Nicaragua and El Salvador. She was also a federal parliamentary official and advisor to Federal Councillors Flavio Cotti and Joseph Deiss, both of the Christian Democratic People's Party. In August 2005, she was elected to the office of Vice-Chancellor by the Swiss Federal Assembly. In December 2007,
Federal Chancellery of Switzerland 1851, first as Federal Chancellor Deputy, then formally as Vice-Chancellor in 1881. In order to provide a balance between languages and geographical representation, it became custom since 1895 to name a second Vice-Chancellor from a French-speaking canton if both the Chancellor and Vice-Chancellor were Swiss-German. The second Vice-Chancellor became a permanent position in 1967. Unlike the Federal Chancellor, Vice-Chancellors are appointed by the Federal Council directly. After both Vice-Chancellors retired in 2005, a row erupted over language representation when Oswald Sigg was named successor to Vice-Chancellor and Federal Council spokesman Achille Casanova. With Federal Chancellor Annemarie Huber-Hotz and the other