Career
Giuseppe Motta was a member of the Swiss Federal Council (1911-1940) and President of the League of Nations (1924-1925).
From 1895, before the elections to the Federal Council, he worked as the lawyer and notary in Airolo.
After his election in 1895 to the Ticino cantonal parliament he quickly became a leading figure of the Catholic-Conservative Party.
In a speech in 1907, he called on the parties to abandon the Ticino barren polemics and to cooperate in the interest of the canton.
In 1899 he became a member of the National Council.
In 1908 he was the first candidate to enter Federal Council.
In 1920 he was elected the President of Swiss Confederation.
After the elections he faced the difficult question of joining the League of Nations.
The consent of the people on 16.5.1920 to join the League of Nations marked the beginning of the so-called differential neutrality.
As a rule in his policy he adhered to the principle of collegiality.
In his political action he expressed a concern for the synthesis of idealism and political realism.
But the international unstable state of the 1930s and the National League crisis forced him to make the real-weight policy to maintain the fragile relations with the Third Reich and Italy.