Swiss Elections & Politics (Next election 2019)

[ZuWo]

Exit poll results:

SVP: 28%, 65 seats (+11)
SP: 18.6%, 44 (-2)
FDP: 16.4%, 33 (+3)
CVP: 12.6%, 28 (-1)
GP: 7.8%, 10 (-5)
BDP: 4.6%, 8 (-1)
GLP: 4.7%, 6 (-6)
others: 4.4%, 6 (+1)

[ZuWo]

Exit poll results:

SVP: 28%, 65 seats (+11)
SP: 18.6%, 44 (-2)
FDP: 16.4%, 33 (+3)
CVP: 12.6%, 28 (-1)
GP: 7.8%, 10 (-5)
BDP: 4.6%, 8 (-1)
GLP: 4.7%, 6 (-6)
others: 4.4%, 6 (+1)

65 SVP seats + 2 Lega seats + 1 Geneva citizens movement seat  + 33 FDP seats = Rightwing majority

Does this mean SVP are getting their second seat in the federal council?

That's very likely now, yes.

New projection. Same number of seats, but changes in the vote shares:

SVP: 29.5%, 65 seats (+11)
SP: 18.9%, 44 (-2)
FDP: 16.3%, 33 (+3)
CVP: 12.1%, 28 (-1)
GP: 6.9%, 10 (-5)
BDP: 4.1%, 8 (-1)
GLP: 4.6%, 6 (-6)
others: 6 (+1)

http://www.srf.ch/news/wahlen/resultate

[ZuWo]

On Sunday the last two run-off elections for the remaining few seats in the Council of States will be held. After that the definite makeup of the new parliament will finally be clear.

As for the executive branch, following the retirement of Mrs. Widmer-Schlumpf (member of the SVP spin-off BDP) the parties of the center ceded their claim to a second seat and vowed to elect a second SVP representative. Therefore, the next Federal Council is going to have 2 SVP, 2 FDP, 1 CVP and 2 SP members again.

Today, after months of conducting a careful selection process and a meeting that took more than five hours, the SVP parliamentary group decided they will put forward three candidacies for the open seat, one from each major part of the country:



From left to right: Thomas Aeschi (36), Norman Gobbi (38) and Guy Parmelin (56).

Each of the three candidates would have been considered outsiders merely a few weeks ago, but their nomination demonstrates the SVP leadership's intention to position the party as a valid political force in all parts of the country and of all generations.

If my visit coincided with a referendum campaign, would it be very noticeable to an outsider?

Only if you're a political geek and speak the local language. Referendum campaigns mostly take place on TV, in the press and on posters.

[ZuWo]

Guy Parmelin is the most moderate of the three SVP candidates and comes across as laid-back and likeable even to political foes so it isn't a huge surprise that he was elected after all. The SVP still has room to grow in the Suisse romande so having a francophone member of government may be a great asset to the party.

A few days before the election took place Parmelin attracted some attention because of his non-existing English skills. When a journalist asked him a question in English Parmelin literally replied "I can English understand mais je préfère répondre en français pour être plus précis".

After all is said and done, the Federal Council now consists of 2 SVP, 2 FDP, 2 SP members and 1 CVP member again. It is remarkable that three of the seven current Federal Councillors come from the French-speaking part of Switzerland while the Italian-speaking Swiss continue to wait for a representative of their own. It used to be widely expected that the longest-serving Federal Councillor Doris Leuthard (CVP) will be replaced by Filippo Lombardi once she steps down. However, it can hardly be expected that yet another non-Swiss German candidate could be elected as long as there are three francophone incumbents - this would render the clear majority of the Swiss population a minority in the federal government, which is unthinkable!

[ZuWo]

First federal projection by SRF (Swiss Broadcast Corporation):

Deportation initiative: 41% yes, 59% no

Ban on financial speculation with foodstuffs: 40% yes, 60% no

Tax breaks for married couples initiative: 50% yes, 50% no

Construction of a second road tunnel through the Central Swiss Alps: 57% yes, 43% no

[ZuWo]

Why did people vote against the deportation initiative? Are they tired of the SVP pushing this issue?

 The short answer: The SVP was beaten at their own game.

The usual way immigration issues are debated in Switzerland is as follows: The SVP manages to provoke, exaggerate and create some hysteria. This time around, however, the anti-SVP campaign did just that in the last few weeks of the campaign by focusing their message and, yes, spreading effective misinformation.

To some of you who posted in this thread, please don't take this the wrong way. I appreciate all of your input on Switzerland-related affairs as I don't have a lot of the time to post here but part of that effective spread of misinformation by the no-campaign has become visible in this very thread. The main reason for this, of course, is that foreign journalists don't normally know a lot about Switzerland. I can't blame them. We have a weird political system and just aren't that important on a global level.
The notion, for instance, that foreigners would have been deported for mere speeding has no basis in fact whatsoever. The text of the initiative stated that a person could only be deported if he/she were handed down a verdict by a court. Clearly, speeding tickets and similar negligible offences would not have been dealt with in court. Also, to be deported for something minor a foreigner would have had to commit repeated offences (at least twice). Shortly, the idea that huge numbers of people would have been deported for petty misdemeanour is factually incorrect.

Another reason why the initiative failed, and perhaps the most important one, is that the SVP wanted to establish a mechanism of "automatic deportation". If a foreigner had committed (a) certain offence(s), the judge in question would have had to deport him/her upon handing down a verdict without the option of taking into consideration the defendant's individual situation. So even if a foreigner had spent all of his/her life in Switzerland and lacked ties to his/her country of origin, he/she would have been deported. Many considered this a fundamental change of our legal system and a severe infringement of the separation of powers and therefore opposed the initiative.

Finally, tough deportation laws are going to take effect this year anyway as the majority of Swiss citizens approved a constitutional clause on that front in 2010 and granted parliament a time frame of five years to pass such legislation.