Swiss General Elections 2011 (Elections to the Federal Council)

[ZuWo]

Swiss citizens will elect members of the Council of States (Ständerat), 46 seats, and of the National Council (Nationalrat), 200 seats, in October 2011. A new election poll was released 27 April 2011 and showed the following tendencies:

Swiss People's Party (SVP): 29.9% (+1.0%)
Social-Democratic Party (SPS): 17.7% (-1.8%)
FDP/The Liberals (FDP/Liberale): 15.2% (-2.5%)
Christian-Democratic People's Party (CVP): 12.7% (-1.8%)
Green Party (Grüne): 10.9% (+1.1%)
Green-Liberal Party (Grünliberale): 5.7% (+4.3%)

Unfortunately I am not allowed to include a link as I haven't had 20 posts in this forum yet but you might find these figures by searching for the headwords "gfs.bern" or "tagesschau.sf.tv" and "Wahlen 2011" online.

[Tender Branson]

I`m happy to provide the graphics and links for my Swiss neighbour ...







http://www.gfsbern.ch/ArticlesDataHandler.ashx?ArticleId=417&Type=file&SubType=File2

[Antonio the Sixth]

Sigh... Switzerland and Austria are absolutely horrible politically...

BTW, what the hell is the "Green liberal party" ?

[minionofmidas]

And what's BDP?

[ZuWo]

Sigh... Switzerland and Austria are absolutely horrible politically...

BTW, what the hell is the "Green liberal party" ?

The Green-Liberal Party is an ecological and economically liberal party. The party was founded in 2004 after members of the Green Party had become dissatisfied with the economical left-wing positions of the Greens. So the Green Liberals actually support tax cuts and really want to cut the debt.

[ZuWo]

And what's BDP?

... and the BDP is a party founded by politicians who seceded from the Swiss People's Party in 2008 when the Swiss People's Party expelled Eveline-Widmer Schlumpf, member of the Federal Council. The party is very strong in certain regions of Switzerland (such as Bern, Glarus or Graubünden) but doesn't play a major role in the other parts of the country.

[ZuWo]

I`m happy to provide the graphics and links for my Swiss neighbour ...

thank you

[Tender Branson]

And what's BDP?

... and the BDP is a party founded by politicians who seceded from the Swiss People's Party in 2008 when the Swiss People's Party expelled Eveline-Widmer Schlumpf, member of the Federal Council. The party is very strong in certain regions of Switzerland (such as Bern, Glarus or Graubünden) but doesn't play a major role in the other parts of the country.

Sounds like the Swiss version of the BZÖ, who doesn't want to be seen as "radical" as their bigger "mother" party and paints itself as more economically and socially liberal. But "liberal" is a word that doesn't go over well here in Austria, and that's why "liberal" parties always fail here.

[minionofmidas]

Not really. The FPÖ-BZÖ split was purely about personal. The way I understood it way back when she was elected to government, there's worlds between Smurf and the modern SVP.

[ZuWo]

Before the foundation of the BDP, the SVP actually had a fairly centrist wing and was not that homogeneous. Yet, the chairman of the party (Ueli Maurer, he's now a federal councillor) managed to keep together the right-wingers and the more centrist members of his party. However, after Widmer-Schlumpf replaced Christoph Blocher in the federal council (he was surprisingly voted out by the majority of the Swiss parliament), she was expelled by the SVP because she did not plan to step down in favour of Blocher, and many of the centrists followed her and created the BDP. The BDP is by far not as right-wing as the SVP and, in my opinion, can hardly be distinguished from the CVP or the FDP.

So, yes, the reasons for the split within the SVP were surely political, but personal animosity played an important role as well.

[Bacon King]

How much of a language divide is there in Swiss politics?

[ZuWo]

How much of a language divide is there in Swiss politics?

Due to the fact that there are three major language regions in Switzerland (Swiss German, French and Italian) there is of course a certain linguistic divide in the country, that is, politicians from the French and Italian parts, which are smaller than the Swiss German part, need to be able to speak German if they want to be heard in the rest of the country. Likewise, politicians from the Swiss German part should speak at least French if they enter the national stage, and most of them do so.

But in general huge differences between the regions do not exist (if we compare the Swiss to the Belgian situation). For example the Swiss People's Party as well as the other three major parties are all represented in diverse regions of the country. Of course, the different language regions differ a bit when it comes to their political stance. The French-speaking and the Italian part of the country, for instance, tend to be economically left-wing, whereas the Swiss German majority is rather conservative.

I think the divide between rural/suburban and urban areas is more important politically speaking. There aren't big differences between the voting patterns of a French-speaking city like Geneva and Zurich, where people speak Swiss German, while people who live in the suburbs of Zurich are considerably more right-wing than those who live in one of the bigger towns.

[Insula Dei]

What Canton do you live in ZuWo?

[ZuWo]

What Canton do you live in ZuWo?

In Zurich. So it's likely that my views are biased and somebody from the French-speaking part of Switzerland would say the exact opposite.

[Hans-im-Glück]

BTW, what the hell is the "Green liberal party" ?

They are a spin-off of the Green Party. What I have read about them is that they are a Swiss ÖDP. They are a Centrist Green Party.

[Tender Branson]

New Isopublic Poll:

28.7% SVP
18.6% SP
13.9% FDP
13.2% CVP
  9.9% Greens
  8.0% Green-Liberals
  3.7% BDP
  4.0% Others

[ZuWo]

These trends in the elections of the National Council are a great starting point for the SVP. The Swiss People's Party usually gains support during the election campaign (which hasn't really started yet), so I wouldn't be surprised if they ended up garnering more than 30% of the votes. At any rate, there's no reason to deny them a second seat in the Federal Council (FC).
With just 3.7% the BDP will have a hard time justifying their seat in the FC but I guess they will be supported by other centrist parties. Another interesting question is whether the Greens will finally get 10% of the votes and then seriously compete for a seat in the FC as well.
The FDP is heading for a complete disaster - if they just barely stay ahead of the CVP they might lose their second seat in the FC.
Finally, I doubt the Green-Liberals can get 8% of the votes. They are a trendy party which is currently boosted by the debate on nuclear power, but they have yet to prove that they can receive a significant proportion of the votes in non-urban parts of the country.


Clearly, the situation looks entirely different when it comes to the Council of States, where the right-wing SVP usually struggles because the members of the Council of States are elected by majority vote.

[ZuWo]

A new poll by the polling institute gfs.bern

SVP 27.5% (-1.4%)
SP 18.9% (-0.6%)
FDP/Liberals 15.0% (-2.7%)
CVP 13.4% (-1.1%)
Green Party 10.0% (+0.2%)
Green-Liberals 5.2% (+3.8%)
BDP 3.0% (+3.0%)

I take this poll with a grain of salt because of the relatively weak SVP and high Green-Liberals numbers. I think the support of the SVP is understated, while the support of the Green-Liberals is overstated in this poll when I consider the current political mood in the country.

http://www.blick.ch/news/politik/svp-verliert-erstmals-auslaenderthema-dominiert-175855

[ZuWo]

The latest gfs.poll on the Swiss parliamentary elections in October:



Swiss elections are so boring. Just look at the minor changes between the last elections and this poll. Yawn.

SVP: 27.4% (-1.5%)
SP: 18.5% (-1.0%)
FDP/Liberals 16.1% (-1.6%)
CVP 15.0% (+0.5%)
Green Party 10.1% (+0.3%)
Green-Liberals 4.6% (+3.2%)
BDP 2.9% (+2.9%)
EVP: 1.7% (-0.7%)
EDU: 1.7% (+0.4%)

http://modules.drs.ch/data/pictures/drs4/schweiz/2011/08-2011/97557.110812_wahlbarometer_w5_3-576.jpg

[Teddy (IDS Legislator)]

Which one of these parties is the racist one again? and which ones have seats in that group of 7 people that run the country?

[Antonio the Sixth]

Which one of these parties is the racist one again?

The one that leads the polls.

[ZuWo]

Which one of these parties is the racist one again? and which ones have seats in that group of 7 people that run the country?

There are two racist parties in Switzerland, I'd say. The PNOS (Swiss Nationalist Party) and the SD (Swiss Democrats). You're probably referring to the SVP (Swiss People's Party), the Swiss party with the highest share of votes, but I stronly disagree with the assessment that the SVP is racist. It is merely a right-wing, conservative party which puts great emphasis on the independence of Switzerland and it actually contains a fairly moderate wing.

And the group of 7 people which run the country is the Federal Council. Normally, it is made up by members of the four biggest parties (SVP - 2 seats, SP - 2 seats, FDP - 2 seats, CVP - 1 seat) but currently the SVP only has 1 seat and the BDP, a party which was formed by politicians who seceded from the SVP, also has 1. This might change after the next elections to the Federal Council in December, though. So Switzerland is governed by a constant grand coalition.

[Teddy (IDS Legislator)]

I went to wikipedia. CVP and SVP switched a seat a few years ago, before that it was decades of the same. In effect the government is a grand coalition, somewhat like they have in Northern Ireland, except in Switzerland, all the parties are actually keen on the idea.

Is any party strong with any ethnicity? IE has anyone been able to win more than their "share" of French, Italian, or Romansch voters?

[Teddy (IDS Legislator)]

I found this:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Switzerland_largest_parties_in_cantonal_parliaments.svg


If I understand it, Green is SVP, while the FDP is Blue, they are Liberal in the British sense? and Orance is CVP which is a Christian Democratic party, somewhat like Canada's Red Tories, IIUC.

[ZuWo]

Is any party strong with any ethnicity? IE has anyone been able to win more than their "share" of French, Italian, or Romansch voters?

Traditionally, the SP (Social Democrats) have been stronger in the French-speaking part of Switzerland, while the SVP have had their heartlands in the rural/suburban parts of the German-speaking part of the country. The CVP (Christian Democrats), originally the party of the Catholics, have been very strong in Central Switzerland (where people speak German) and in the South (where they speak Italian), the FDP (Free Democrats) have been fairly present in all parts of the country. Nowadays, however, the SVP has become the strongest party in every region except from the Italian part of Switzerland, where a local party (Lega dei Ticinesi) essentially takes the role of the SVP.