President of the Swiss Confederation, Mr Guy Parmelin, attended the Chapter of the Académie du Cep which was held on Saturday 18 September as part of the Fête des Vendanges in Russin, a wine-producing village a few kilometres from Geneva. On this occasion, Mr. Parmelin was inducted as Honorary Knight of this Brotherhood, a member of the F.I.C.B. The fact that a Head of State attends a Chapter of a wine brotherhood and is welcomed as a member is sufficiently rare to be highlighted.
Mr Parmelin has been a member of the Swiss Government since 2016. The presidency of the Swiss Confederation is a rotating presidency, meaning that the President of the Confederation changes every year. In addition to his function as President of the Confederation in the year 2021, Mr Parmelin is Minister for the Economy, Education and Research. Before joining the Swiss government, he was a farmer/vinster in the village of Bursins in the canton of Vaud.
For the Académie du Cep, it was an honour to receive and induct the President of the Confederation. It was also a pleasure to receive “a man of the soil”. The Grand Master of the Académie du Cep, Jacques JEANNERAT, who is also Vice-President for Switzerland of F.I.C.B., declared that “The actions carried out by the Académie du Cep take on even more meaning when we welcome and induct a person from the world of agriculture and wine”.
