Pierre de Chastonay

Pierre Victor de Chastonay, the Swiss Christian Democratic politician who served as mayor of Sierre and as a member of the National Council for three legislatures, died on September 14, 2026. He was 95. Radio Television Suisse, Le Nouvelliste and other Valais outlets reported the death of the Sierre lawyer-notary who had long embodied a local political dynasty spanning three generations of federal and cantonal service.

Born in Sierre, Valais, on June 20, 1931, he was the son of Joseph de Chastonay, a former cantonal councillor of state, and Marcelle Wolff. His grandfather Victor had sat in the National Council between 1875 and 1892. After schooling at the colleges of Porrentruy and Saint-Maurice and a law licence from the University of Geneva, he studied at the Centre europeen universitaire de Nancy before returning to Sierre to practise as an avocat-notaire. He married Maria Pia Valenti in 1961; they had a daughter.

He entered Sierre's municipal council in 1965 and in 1971 succeeded Maurice Salzmann as president of the commune. During his mayoralty Sierre merged with Granges in 1972 and became, at the time, the canton's second city. He left the presidency in 1980 after nearly a decade steering the Cite du Soleil through growth and amalgamation. Parallel to local office he sat on the Grand Council of Valais from 1969 to 1977 and on the Swiss National Council for the PDC from 1975 to 1987, following his grandfather into the federal chamber.

In Bern he worked on economic and financial questions, including intercantonal fiscal equalization and support for peripheral regions, and on transport policy. He also chaired the Pro Rawyl association that promoted the Rawyl tunnel, a cause that once brought thousands of Valaisans into the streets. Contemporaries remembered a politician rooted in Christian Democratic localism rather than national celebrity, yet consistently present on the files that mattered to mountain valleys.

Beyond politics he remained active in Sierre's bourgeoisie and in local life, including ice hockey and hunting. Swiss public radio and the Valais press remembered him as a durable figure whose career linked family tradition to the daily work of a Valais town. He died aged 95; funeral details were left to the family as obituaries circulated in mid-September 2026.