Editing Kaspar Villiger (section)

== Politics ==
On 1 February 1989, he was elected to the Swiss Federal Council. He is affiliated to the [[Free Democratic Party of Switzerland|Free Democratic Party]] (Liberals).

During his time in office he headed the following departments:
* [[Federal Military Department]] (1989 – 1995)
* [[Federal Department of Finance]] (1996 – 2003)<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.efd.admin.ch/efd/de/home/das-efd/karin-keller-sutter/fruehere-departmentsvorsteher.html|title=Frühere Departmentsvorsteher/innen|first=Eidgenössisches Finanzdepartement|last=EFD|website=www.efd.admin.ch|accessdate=26 April 2023}}</ref>
He was [[President of the Confederation (Switzerland)|President of the Confederation]] twice, in 1995 and again in 2002.

In 1995 Kaspar Villiger apologized on occasion of an official visit by Dan Culler who was an internee in the [[Wauwilermoos internment camp]] during World War II. Dwight Mears, a U.S. Army officer, covered the apology in his 2012 PhD thesis on the American internees in Switzerland.<ref name="srf-20150907">{{cite web|url=http://www.srf.ch/kultur/im-fokus/der-archivar/abgeschossen-von-der-neutralen-schweiz|title=Abgeschossen von der neutralen Schweiz|publisher=[[Schweizer Radio und Fernsehen]] SRF|author=Franz Kasperski|language=de|date=2015-09-07|access-date=2015-10-23}}</ref><ref name="erzwungenelandung">{{cite web|url=http://climage.ch/en/movies/forced-landing/|title=Forced Landing|publisher=climage.ch|access-date=2015-10-23}}</ref><ref name="schweizaktuell-20151023">{{cite web|url=http://www.srf.ch/sendungen/schweiz-aktuell/massen-dna-test-jubilaeum-paraplegiker-zentrum|title=Gedenkstein für Internierten-Straflager|publisher=[[Schweiz aktuell]]|language=de|date=2015-10-23|access-date=2015-10-23}}</ref><ref name="swissinfo-danculler">{{cite web|url=http://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/belated-honour_pow-medal-recognises-us-aviators--suffering/34959126|title=POW medal recognises US aviators' suffering|publisher=[[swissinfo]]|author=Olivier Grivat|date=2013-02-11|access-date=2015-10-23}}</ref>

In September 2003, he announced he was to resign on 31 December 2003.