Raphael Golta

PrimarMayor of Zurich (Stadtpräsident)

SP/PS (Sozialdemokratische Partei der Schweiz / Social Democratic Party) · Elveția

Profil redactat în engleză

Raphael Golta (born 17 November 1975 in Zurich) is a Swiss Social Democratic (SP) politician and, since 2026, the Stadtpräsident (Mayor) of the City of Zurich, succeeding long-serving SP mayor Corine Mauch. The youngest of three brothers, he grew up in Zurich's Kreis 8; his mother is from Brazil and his father from Ticino. He attended the Kantonsschule Hohe Promenade (1988–1994, Matura Typus B) and studied at the University of Zurich, first economics and later media/communication science (Publizistikwissenschaft), informatics and economics, completing a licentiate (lic. phil.) in 2002. He worked as a research assistant at the University of Zurich's IPMZ media research institute, as managing partner of presstrends GmbH, as an event-sector account manager, and as a software developer before entering full-time politics. Active in the SP and Juso since his school years, he sat on the SP Kreis 7 section board (co-president from 1998), the SP Stadt Zürich board (1998–2004) and the cantonal party board, and served in the Zurich cantonal parliament (Kantonsrat, 2003–2014). Elected to the Zurich city executive (Stadtrat) in February 2014, he headed the Social Department (Vorsteher Sozialdepartement) from 2014 to 2026, where he was known for redistributive and inclusion-focused social policy. He won the mayoralty in 2026, taking over the Präsidialdepartement, and is married to jurist and former cantonal MP Catherine Heuberger Golta (SP); the couple has two children.