Fathi Derder

Fathi Derder
Member of the Swiss National Council
In office 5 December 2011 – 1 December 2019
Personal details
Born	(1970-12-04)4 December 1970 Lausanne, Switzerland
Died	25 January 2025(2025-01-25) (aged 54)
Party	PLR (until 2019)
Education	University of Lausanne
Occupation	Journalist

Fathi Derder (4 December 1970 – 25 January 2025) was a Swiss journalist and politician of the Liberal-Radical Party (PLR).

Life and career

Early life and family

Born in Lausanne on 4 December 1970, Derder had an Algerian father and a Valasian mother. He was a dual national until 2000, when he gave up his Algerian passport over administrative difficulties. He had two brothers. He had four children in total; two with his first wife Isabelle Falconnier, and two with his second wife Mélanie Chappuis.

Education and journalistic career

Derder studied letters at the University of Lausanne and joined its student radio station, Fréquence Banane. He began his career with the newspaper La Côte before working at Radio Lac and Radio Suisse Romande. In 2008, he was named editor-in-chief of La Télé. From May 2017 to July 2018, he was editor-in-chief of Agefi. In August 2022, he became co-host of the radio show Drôle d'époque. Two months later, he was named president of the Chambre cantonale consultative des immigrés. In November 2022, he succeeded Niniane Paeffgan as director of Swiss Digital Initiative.

Political career

In 2011, Derder was elected to the National Council, where he joined the Science, Education and Culture Committee. In 2015, he took advantage of the fact that Olivier Français was appointed to the Council of States and was re-elected. In 2018, he announced that he would not seek re-election. In 2019, his term expired and he concurrently resigned from the PLR. At the end of his term, he took a skeptical position of the website Lobbywatch.

Death

Derder took his life on 25 January 2025, at the age of 54, leaving a suicide note in which he explains having struggled with depression.

Publications

• Le prochain Google sera suisse (à 10 conditions) (2015)
• Les petits secrets du Palais (2019)